Canada's Avalon Wasteneys, Caileigh Filmer, Jessica Sevick, Kasia Gruchalla-Wesierski, Abby Dent, Kristina Walker, Sydney Payne, Kristen Kit and Maya Meschkuleit celebrate silver in the women's eight rowing final at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024, in Vaires-sur-Marne, France.Ebrahim Noroozi/The Associated Press
Canada’s defending-champion women’s eight rowing team has won a silver medal at the Paris Olympics.
The Canadians finished with a time of five minutes 58.84 seconds at Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, behind gold medallist Romania who finished in five minutes 54.39 seconds.
Canada found itself in a tight battle with Great Britain for second with 500 metres to go, but were able to hold off their rivals to claim silver.
The Canadians are in Paris as the defending gold medallists in the event after winning at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
The team returned four members from the Tokyo games: Coxswain Kristen Kit of St. Catharines, Ont., Calgary’s Kasia Gruchalla-Wesierski, Toronto’s Sydney Payne and Avalon Wasteneys of Campbell River, B.C.
Five others — Abby Dent of Kenora, Ont., Victoria’s Caileigh Filmer, Maya Meschkuleit of Mississauga, Ont., Jessica Sevick of Strathmore, Alta., and Kristina Walker of Wolfe Island, Ont. — joined the returning members on this year’s team.
The team qualified for today’s finals after finishing second in Thursday’s repechage.
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