The defending Olympic champions raced in the women’s eight heats today at the Stade Nautique de Vaires-Sur-Marne in Paris, France. The Canadian crew, mixed with both veterans and first-time Olympians, lined up against some heavy-hitting countries including Great Britain and Australia.

It was a tight start across the field with Great Britain taking an early lead, Australia and Canada chasing in second and third respectively. Although Australia made a push to close the gap in the last 1000m, Great Britain was untouchable, crossing the finish line with clear water in 6:16.20, the second fastest time of the women’s eight heats. Canada held onto their third-place position in front of Denmark with a time of 6:21.31. Since only one boat advances straight to the final, Canada will race the repechage on Thursday.

The Canadian women’s eight in Tokyo also progressed through the repechage to win Olympic gold. Kasia Gruchalla-Wesierski (Calgary, Alberta) shared that they are up for the challenge this week. 

“It’s a completely different crew from Tokyo and equally, if not more talented! We have something special in this crew. I know we are in the mix and I know we have the talent so I’m looking forward to see what we can throw down later this week.”

The women’s lightweight double duo, Jenny Casson (Kingston, Ontario) AND Jill Moffatt (Bethany, Ontario) raced their repechage today, sailing through to the semi-finals in 2^nd place behind Ireland.  The top three boats from the lightweight double repechages today advanced to the A/B semifinals on Wednesday.

“Having this extra race was ultimately good because we didn’t have a great heat and we were able to come back today and make some improvements,” said Moffatt. “We got the job done but we are not going to say it was perfect. It’s a long week and we are taking it one race at a time.”

Both Canadian boats will have a rest day tomorrow (Tuesday) with the women’s lightweight double contesting the A/B semifinals on Wednesday and the Women’s eight racing the repechage on Thursday.

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