BELGRADE, SERBIA — Canadian rowers Jill Moffatt (University of Western Ontario) and Jenny Casson (Kingston Rowing Club) have secured Canada’s first quota spot for the Paris 2024 Olympics by winning their semi-final race ahead of New Zealand and the United States with a time of 7:23.12. Advancing to the A Final guarantees qualification for Paris with a total of seven nation spots up for grabs in this category.

“This was the race we have been preparing for the entire year. It was really everything on the line,” Moffatt said emotionally. “It was also an opportunity to test our speed against the best rowers in the world. There are many crews racing today that we have never beaten before so we went into this semi-final with a mindset that we are going through and that we can beat them.”

As predicted, the Women’s Lightweight Double event has been hotly contested with tiny margins separating the crews across the 2,000-meter course on Sava Lake. An additional factor at play today was a feisty headwind, forcing the World Rowing Fairness Committee to reallocate the lanes for racing.

“We knew it was going to be really windy from watching the racing the previous day but we felt quite prepared for a race with headwind because we were dealing with a lot of that at Henley [Royal Regatta],” said Moffatt. “Our style of rowing is quite long and requires a lot of power so we felt confident that our technical side of rowing would match these kinds of conditions.”

This semi-final race carried a significant amount of weight for the Tokyo Olympians, having qualified for the previous Olympic Games in a more unconventional way -through country quota reallocation. In 2019, New Zealand turned back a lightweight women’s double quota spot following the qualification events and Canada was next in line.

“It feels extra special to earn it ourselves this time,” said Casson. “At the end of the day, we had to come top 3 no matter what and how that happened wasn’t really top of mind but our experience rowing together really played in our favour. Jill made all the right calls at all the right moments, and it just feels really special to accomplish this with our coach Jeremy and the support of our friends and family back home.”

Jill and Jenny will be racing for a medal in Belgrade on Saturday, September 9.

Other Canadian crews in A/B semi-final action today were the Women’s Four and the Women’s Quad, both advancing to the B Final with 6th place and 4th place finishes respectively.

Tomorrow will mark the return of the Eights with both men’s and women’s crews competing in the repechage. The outcome of this race will decide which countries will line up for the A Final on Sunday, with only the top five nations will earn qualification for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

 

2023 World Rowing Championships – Canadian Team:

Women’s Coxed Eight (W8+) – Next Race – Repechage 
Top five nations receive Olympic qualification

Morgan Rosts – Ridley Graduate Boat Club / Ontario

Cassidy Deane – Kingston Rowing Club / British Columbia

Avalon Wasteneys – University of Victoria Rowing Club / British Columbia

Sydney Payne – Brentwood College Rowing Club / Ontario

Kirsten Edwards – University of Victoria Rowing Club / British Columbia

Alexis Cronk – University of Victoria Rowing Club / British Columbia

Kasia Gruchalla-Wesierski – Club d’Aviron Knowlton / Alberta

Jessica Sevick – University of British Columbia / Calgary Rowing Club / Alberta

Kristen Kit (cox) – University of British Columbia / St. Catharines Rowing Club / Ontario

 

Men’s Coxed Eight (M8+) – Next Race – Repechage
Top five nations receive Olympic qualification

Will Crothers – Kingston Rowing Club / Ontario

Jakub Buczek – St. Catharines Rowing Club / Ontario

Curtis Ames – Calgary Rowing Club / Alberta

Gavin Stone – Queen’s University Rowing Club / Island Lake Rowing Club / Ontario

Cody Bailey – London Western Rowing Club / Ontario

Liam Keane – Victoria City Rowing Club / British Columbia

Joel Cullen – University of British Columbia / University of Washington / British Columbia

Ryan Clegg – Western University Rowing Club / Ontario

Laura Court (cox) – St. Catharines Rowing Club / Ontario

 

Men’s Coxless Pair (M2-) – Next Race – D Final

Josh King – Ottawa Rowing Club / Ontario

Luke Gadsdon – Leander Boat Club / Brock University / Ontario

 

Women’s Coxless Pair (W2-) – Next Race – C Final

Caileigh Filmer – University of Victoria Rowing Club / British Columbia

Maya Meschkuleit – Don Rowing Club / Ontario

 

Women’s Double Scull (W2x) – Next Race – C Final

Katie Clark – University of British Columbia Rowing Club / British Columbia

Marilou Duvernay-Tardif – Knowlton Rowing Club / Quebec

 

Women’s Coxless Four (W4-) – Next Race – B Final 
Top seven nations receive Olympic qualification

Rebecca Zimmerman – University of Victoria Rowing Club / Brockville Rowing Club / Ontario

Kristen Siermachesky – Brockville Rowing Club / BC NextGen Performance Centre / Ontario

Kristina Walker – Kingston Rowing Club / University of British Columbia Rowing Club / Ontario

Piper Battersby – Victoria City Rowing Club / University of Victoria Rowing Club / British Columbia

 

Men’s Quadruple Scull (M4x) – Next Race – C Final

Liam Smit – University of British Columbia Rowing Club / South Africa / British Columbia

Terek Been – Montreal Rowing Club / Quebec

Steven Rosts – Ridley Graduate Boat Club / Ontario

Daniel De Groot – St. Catharines Rowing Club / Ontario

 

Women’s Quadruple Scull (W4x) – Next Race – B Final 
Top seven nations receive Olympic qualification

Shannon Kennedy – London Western Rowing Club / Ontario

Grace VandenBroek – Peterborough Rowing Club / Trent University / Ontario

Carling Zeeman – Sudbury Rowing Club / Ontario

Elisa Bolinger – University of Western Ontario / Ontario

 

Women’s Lightweight Double Scull (LW2x) – Next Race – A Final
Boat qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympics

Jill Moffatt – Western University Rowing Club / Ontario

Jennifer Casson – Kingston Rowing Club / Ontario

 

Men’s Single Scull (M1x) – Next Race – D Final

Trevor Jones – Peterborough Rowing Club / Ontario

 

Coaches

Lauren Fisher

Jeremy Ivey

Maksym Kepskyy

Dane Lawson

Carol Love

John Wetzstein