Canada’s women’s eight captures silver medal at rowing world championships

SARASOTA, Fla. – Canada’s women’s eight made a late push to capture silver at the rowing world championships on Sunday.

The Canadians were able to get past the United States and New Zealand in the last 250 metres to finish in six minutes 7.09 seconds.

Romania won gold in 6:06.40 while New Zealand hung on to take bronze in 6:07.27.

“That extra rep race was a great opportunity to figure out what was going on in the boat and use it to power us forward in the finals,” said Susanne Grainger.

Grainger of London, Ont., Kristin Bauder and Lisa Roman of Langley, B.C., Calgary’s Nicole Hare, Hillary Janssens of Cloverdale, B.C., Toronto’s Jennifer Martins, Christine Roper of Jamaica (Ottawa Rowing Club), Victoria’s Rebecca Zimmerman along with cox Kristen Kit of St. Catharines, Ont., made up the team.

The Romanians’ victory broke an 11-year winning streak by the U.S.