Triple gold day for Canadian rowers at Toronto 2015
After a four medal day on Monday, Canada’s rowers were back on the water in St. Catharines, winning three gold medals on Day 4 at Toronto 2015.
Carling Zeeman kicked off the morning in the women’s single sculls. Tied for first after the first 500m, she took over the lead solo at the midway point, opening up a three second gap on the field. That lead extended to more than eight seconds at the 1500m mark, ending in a comfortable victory for the gold medal over boats from the United States and Chile.
Related: Canada wins four rowing medals at TO2015
Carling Zeeman after winning the women’s single scull at the Pan Am Games on July 14, 2015.
That was quickly followed by a gold medal in the women’s lightweight double sculls by Liz Fenje and Kate Sauks, who have only been rowing together for a couple of weeks. This race was a little tighter, but they held the lead from start to finish to take win over duos from Cuba and the United States by three seconds, meaning that they achieved a lifelong dream of hearing O Canada played for them.
Liz Fenje (left) and Kate Sauks (right) celebrate after winning the women’s lightweight double scull at the Pan Am Games July 14, 2015.
“My sisters and I used to play Olympics at home for various ridiculous sports and we’d always have our national anthem moment and would say, ‘Someday we want to be like that and want to actually have our national anthem’,” said Sauks. “To have the anthem play for a performance that Liz and I did was incredible.”
The morning was capped by the men’s quad sculls crew of Matthew Buie, Julien Bahain, Will Dean and Rob Gibson capturing gold by two seconds over boats from Cuba and Argentina. The world-class Canadian team led the final from start to finish.
Matthew Buie, Julien Bahain, Rob Gibson and Will Dean (left to right) after winning gold in men’s quadruple sculls at the Pan Am Games July 14, 2015.
Canada’s two other boats in action, the men’s lightweight double sculls and the men’s pair, both finished fifth.
