Women’s eight rowers win world championship bronze

Feature photo via Rowing Canada Aviron

In an extremely competitive women’s eight race at the 2015 World Rowing Championships, Canada took the bronze medal in Aiguebelette, France on Sunday morning.

The Canadian women’s eight crew of Cristy Nurse, Lisa Roman, Susanne Grainger, Jennifer Martins, Christine Roper, Ashley BrzozowiczNatalie MastracciLauren WilkinsonLesley Thompson-Willie (coxswain) finished third in a time of six minutes and 9.050 seconds, behind the United States (6:05.650) and New Zealand (6:08.520). Canada edged Great Britain for the podium by just over a second.

2015 World Rowing Championships - women's eight podium: USA (gold), New Zealand (silver), Canada (bronze).

2015 World Rowing Championships – women’s eight podium: USA (gold), New Zealand (silver), Canada (bronze).

“It’s a close race, which is very positive for women’s rowing,” Thompson-Willie told worldrowing.com. “We’ve had a good race today, we can’t complain about bronze.”

RELATED: Canadian rowers heading into world finals

Sunday being the final day of races, this will be Canada’s only medal in an Olympic event at Aiguebelette after a couple of close fourth place results on Saturday. Away from the podium, several Canadian boats qualified for the Olympic Games in Rio. A full recap of the world championships will be posted at Olympic.ca.