Canada’s men’s eight won silver on the final day of competition at the world rowing championships in Poland on Sunday, as two other boats just missed the podium.
The men’s eight finished in a time of five minutes 27.15 seconds, well back of the German boat that won with a time of 5:24.13. The Netherlands took bronze (5:28.32).
Canada sends two more crews to finals at world rowing championships
(CP) – 30 minutes ago
POZNAN, Poland — Two more Canadian crews qualified for their respective finals Friday at the world rowing championships.
Lindsay Jennerich of Victoria and Sheryl Preston of North Delta, B.C., finished second in their semifinal in the lightweight women’s double to advance to Sunday’s final. Greece won in seven minutes 29.50 seconds, followed by Canada in 7:31.57 and Australia in 7:32.13.
The Canadians sat in fourth place for the first part of the race, but made a move at the right time to secure a spot in the medal round.
“We knew we had a strong middle 1,000 (metres) in our back pocket,” said Jennerich.
Preston agreed.
“We have a lot of trust in each other,” said Preston. “I have trust in Lindsay’s (race) calls … we’ve done a lot of racing and training together this year and that really showed in (Friday’s) semi.”
The Canadian lightweight men’s double also qualified for the final. Doug Vandor of Dewittville, Que. and Cam Sylvester of Caledon, Ont., finished third in their semifinal to advance.
Great news from the World Rowing Championships for Canada. Getty Images Several crews have moved on to either the finals or semis. Not mentioned in this article is that the lightweight men’s four and the Women’s Eight both moved on. The Women’s Eight and the coxed men’s pairs team are into the final and the men’s four has advanced to the semi-finals. The News is a lot more scarce than it was about the world athletics championships a week ago but still, good reports out of Poznan.
Canadian crews rowing their way into medal contention
Canwest News Service
Published: Monday, August 24, 2009
Canadian boats have taken the next step toward the finals at the world rowing championships in Poznan, Poland.
The Canadian men’s eights crew, which captured the gold medal at the Olympic Games last summer in Beijing, has moved onto the finals, while the lightweight men’s and women’s doubles advanced to the semifinals. Another three Canadian boats will have to qualify through the repechage.
BERLIN — Usain Bolt was honored by the city of Berlin by receiving an original segment of the Berlin Wall — nearly three tons of it.
The Jamaican sprinter, who broke world records in winning gold medals in the 100 and 200 meters, was presented with the piece of wall at a small ceremony Sunday, the final day of the world championships.
The 12-foot high section will be delivered to Bolt’s training camp in Jamaica.
The piece of the wall, which divided communist East Berlin from West Berlin between 1961 and 1989, is decorated with a life-size painting of Bolt running on the blue track of the Olympic stadium and the words “NEW WR” — new world record. Bolt set a world record in the 100 at 9.58 seconds and 19.19 in the 200.
“I will never forget Berlin,” Bolt said at the ceremony. “Ich bin ein Berlino.”
The bear mascot of the championships is called Berlino, while the phrase “ich bin ein Berliner” was used by former President John F. Kennedy during a visit to West Berlin.
Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit said Bolt had shown that “one can tear down walls that had been considered as insurmountable.”
The Berlin Wall came down in 1989, as communism was collapsing in Eastern Europe.
Long’s sportsmanship was not case of race, says son
By Pirate Irwin (AFP) – 1 hour ago
BERLIN — A world famous legend recalling how German Luz Long crossed racial barriers to help American rival Jesse Owens qualify for the long jump final at the 1936 Olympics has been downplayed by Long’s son Kai.
photo courtesy of AFPKai Long said his father, whose actions helped Owens win the gold, prompting a furious Adolf Hitler to leave the stadium early, had simply acted within the old tradition of amateur sportsmanship.
“It was not a question of race, of being black and white,” said Long, who is attending the world athletics to watch the long jump final.
Canada’s reigning world silver medallist Gary Reed and Sudan’s reigning Olympic silver medallist Ismail Ismail both failed to qualify for the [800m] final, scheduled for 1525 GMT on Sunday.
And in other results, LaShawm Merritt once again beat Jeremy Wariner to lead a 1-2 US rush to the 400m podium.
1 4 1206 LaShawn Merritt USA 44.06
2 6 1242 Jeremy Wariner USA 44.60
3 3 1113 Renny Quow TRI 45.02
Veronica Campbell-Brown also finished second, again to her nemesis, Alyson Felix. Felix has now won her third consecutive world championships 200m title.
21 August 2009
Position Lane Bib Athlete Country Mark
1 6 986 Allyson Felix USA 22.02
2 5 522 Veronica Campbell-Brown JAM 22.35
3 4 126 Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie BAH 22.41
Interesting blog post from Jimson Lee at speedendurance.com, who has broken down the 10m split times from both Tyson Gay and Usain Bolt over their most recent major meets.
[edit in: another excellent biomechanical analysis of Bolt’s potential here].
Compare Bolt’s last 10m from Beijing (1.73 sec) vs. his last 10m in Berlin (1.66 sec). Chased by Tyson Gay, Bolt actually ran through the last phase of the race this time.
Usain Bolt Splits – 9.69 vs 9.58 – Can He Run Faster?
August 17, 2009 by Jimson Lee
Honestly, I didn’t expect Usain Bolt to run sub 9.60.
I felt a WR was imminent after watching his SF, and I knew his chest thumping slowdown in Beijing showed me he could run low 9.60.
But a 9.58?
Now, in all fairness, I added Tyson Gay’s splits, just to show what it will take to beat Usain Bolt. I mentioned his 9.68 +4.1 wind aided race winning the 2008 USATF Olympic Trials in a previous post.
You can also thank Tyson Gay for making Bolt push though the race. Bolt came to Berlin to win. The World Record was bonus.
Looks like we’re going to see a big re-match on Friday in the men’s 400m between Olympic champion LaShawn Merritt and world champ Jeremy Wariner. Both won their semis today: Merritt in 44.37 and Wariner in 44.69. This is turning into one of the best rivalries in track and field.
Here’s a feature I did on Wariner last summer, before Jeremy lost his Olympic title to Merritt.
This must be a huge heartbreak after running so well in his heat.
Canadians eliminated from 200m
Last Updated: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 | 3:07 PM ET
All three Canadians in the men’s 200 metres at the world track and field championships were eliminated in Tuesday’s quarter-finals in Berlin.
Jared Connaughton of Charlottetown, P.E.I., appeared to qualify for the semifinals with a season-best time of 20.80 seconds, good for second place in his heat, but was later disqualified for stepping out of his lane.
Photo Andy Lyons/Getty ImagsNews was better for Priscilla Lopes-Schliep (12.61, won her heat) and Perdita Felicien (12.58, second in her heat) as both made the women’s 100m hurdles final.
Here’s a feature I produced about VCB last summer.
Berlin 2009 WOMEN’S 100m RESULTS
Position Lane Bib Athlete Country Mark React
1 3 528 Shelly-Ann Fraser JAM 10.73
2 4 531 Kerron Stewart JAM 10.75
3 5 1003 Carmelita Jeter USA 10.90
4 6 522 Veronica Campbell-Brown JAM 10.95
A feature I produced last year before the Beijing Games. It’s good to see Tyson come through with a personal best of 9.71 today in Berlin at the World Championships. Hard to imagine a sprinter running 9.71 and losing by over 1/10 of a second.
Great to see the favourites finish 1-2-3. Bolt, Gay, and Powell have all dominated world sprinting over the last quadrennial, and they came through in the most competitive 100m final in history. This was a far more competitive test for Usain Bolt than Beijing was. Usain Bolt has dropped the WR from 9.74 to 9.58 in just over a year. That’s a .16 second improvement, completely unheard of over 100m. Beautiful sprinting yes, but come on.
REUTERS/Michael Dalder
Bolt sets new world record in men’s 100 metres
CANWEST NEWS SERVICE
AUGUST 16, 2009 1:22 PM
Usain Bolt of Jamaica crosses the line to win the gold medal in the men’s 100 Metres Final during day two of the 12th IAAF World Athletics Championships at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany. Bolt set a new World Record of 9.58 seconds.
Photograph by: Andy Lyons, Getty
Usain Bolt became the first man to run the 100 metres in under 9.6 seconds Sunday when he set a new world record at the IAAF world track and field championships in Berlin.
photo by deutsche wellleThe Jamaican sprinter stopped the clock in an astonishing 9.58 seconds, besting his previous mark of 9.69 set at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. American Tyson Gay was second in 9.71 and Jamaica’s Asafa Powell was third in 9.84.
Jared may be from the “other” coast, but I’m following him all the same. Last summer Catriona Le May Doan and I travelled to PEI to profile the community of sprinters following in his fleet footsteps. This is what I love about blogging: once you’ve started a story, you don’t need to drop it and move on. You can continue following someone long after your deadline.
Jared is rounding into great shape for Berlin where he’ll be competing at the World Championships starting next Tuesday, August 18 when the first of the men’s 200m heats gets underway.
DUSSELDORFF, Germany — Jared Connaughton of New Haven, P.E.I., set a seasonal best of 20.68 seconds to finish first in the men’s 200 at a track and field meet here Monday. The event is being used as a final tune-up for the world championships in Berlin which gets underway Saturday.
The Canadian men’s 4×100 relay team of Sam Effah, Seyi Smith, Connaughton and Brian Barnett were clocked in 38.63. Effah relaced Hank Palmer in the first leg. Connaughton will run the 200 and the third leg of the 4×100 at the worlds.
Connaughton helped the Canadians finish sixth at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing last summer. The 200-metre lanes are familiar ground for the 24-year-old Connaughton. He won the national 200 title (20.34) in 2008 en route to a breakout season which culminated with a 200 semifinal appearance in Beijing.
With Victoria’s Gary Reed recently coming off a big victory in the 800m at the Grand Prix of London, all eyes should be on him. But it’s his rival and defending 2007 World Champion Alfred Kirwa Yego (photo left) who is still getting the headlines. I’m sure that’s just fine by the Canadian 800m champion. He probably wants nothing more than to focus on taking back that 1/100 of a second he gave up to Yego in the last Worlds.
This is the kind of press Yego is getting …
Ready when it counts – Yego knows when to come good
Saturday, 08 August 2009
Yego has developed the rewarding habit of rising to the occasion, dating back to the 2004 IAAF World Junior Championships, when he left a number of more highly-rated opponents trailing in his wake to take the silver in a then personal best of 1:47.39.
After winning the World title in 1:47.09, winning by a single hundredths-of-a-second from Canada’s Gary Reed, he completed his collection of medals on the global stage when he took the bronze in last summer’s Olympic Games.
The place on the Beijing podium that proved to all his critics after Osaka that, even if gold medal went to his compatriot Wilfred Bungei, he was not just a streak of lightning down the home straight that only struck once.
Remember, it was Yego who denied Reed the gold in 2007, and it was Yego again who denied Reed the podium in Beijing last summer. Should be a great rematch.
The World Athletics championships are coming up fast and I spotted this interesting detail just now …
American athletes will wear the initials “JO” on their uniforms in honor of iconic hero Jesse Owens, who defied onlooking Adolf Hitler in the same stadium by winning four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
“These World Championships are special,” said USA Track chief executive Doug Logan. “It’s Team USA’s chance to come back strong in the post-Olympic year and it’s an opportunity to honor the incredible legacy of Jesse Owens.
Sheryl Preston (front) and Lindsay Jennerich (rear) training in the Women’s Lightweight Doubles in preparation for the World Rowing Championships to be held from August 23-30 in Poznan, Poland.
Preston and Jennerich have been on the podium several times this summer on the World Cup circuit, most recently winning a bronze at the prestigious Lucerne Regatta in Switzerland.
They’ll be joined at the World Championships by another contending lightweight crew and a vastly different edition of the Canadian Men’s Eight.
All the crews training at Elk Lake are following in the wake of a dominating gold medal performance by the Canadian M8+ at the Beijing Olympics last summer. And the results so far have been impressive.
Lightweight Doubles partners Doug Vandor and Cam Sylvester (pictured left) recently won a silver medal in Lucerne and are looking for a similar podium result at the Worlds.
The new Men’s Eight has quickly taken up the challenge of filling the large shoes of last year’s gold medal-winning crew by picking up a silver of their own at Lucerne.
The new crew draws from talent across the country. Coxed by Mark Laidlaw, from Mississauga, Ont., the Eight now consists of Derek O’Farrell of Unionville, Ont., Steve Van Knotsenburg of Beamsville, Ont., James Dunaway of Duncan, B.C., Malcolm Howard of Victoria, Toronto’s Andrew Byrnes, Doug Csima of Oakville, Ont., Gabe Bergen of 100 Mile House, B.C., and Rob Gibson of Kingston, Ont.
The next quadrennial is looking very good for Rowing Canada.
The Jamaican sprinter, who broke world records in winning gold medals in the 100 and 200 meters, was presented with the piece of wall at a small ceremony Sunday, the final day of the world championships.
“I will never forget Berlin,” Bolt said at the ceremony. “Ich bin ein Berlino.”
LaShawm Merritt once again beat Jeremy Wariner to lead a 1-2 US rush to the 400m podium.
Veronica Campbell-Brown also finished second, again to her nemesis, Alyson Felix. Felix has now won her third consecutive world championships 200m title.
who has broken down the 10m split times from both Tyson Gay and Usain Bolt over their most recent major meets.
Looks like we’re going to see a big re-match on Friday in the men’s 400m between Olympic champion LaShawn Merritt and world champ Jeremy Wariner. Both won their semis today: Merritt in 44.37 and Wariner in 44.69. This is turning into one of the best rivalries in track and field.Canadians eliminated from 200m
The huge generational shift in Jamaican sprinting continues. Yesterday, Shelly-Ann Fraser took the gold in the women’s 100m final, pushing Veronica Campbell-Brown off the podium in the premier women’s speed event. Since becoming the World Youth 100m champion in 1999, VCB has been a fixture of Jamaican sprinting and she is not going now without a fight.
and I travelled to PEI to profile the community of sprinters following in his fleet footsteps. This is what I love about blogging: once you’ve started a story, you don’t need to drop it and move on. You can continue following someone long after your deadline. 
and defending 2007 World Champion Alfred Kirwa Yego (photo left) who is still getting the headlines. I’m sure that’s just fine by the Canadian 800m champion. He probably wants nothing more than to focus on taking back that 1/100 of a second he gave up to Yego in the last Worlds.he completed his collection of medals on the global stage when he took the bronze in last summer’s Olympic Games.
several times this summer on the World Cup circuit, most recently winning a bronze at the prestigious Lucerne Regatta in Switzerland.
Lightweight Doubles partners Doug Vandor and Cam Sylvester (pictured left) recently won a silver medal in Lucerne and are looking for a similar podium result at the Worlds. 
The new Men’s Eight has quickly taken up the challenge of filling the large shoes of last year’s gold medal-winning crew by picking up a silver of their own at Lucerne. 