Williams and McLeod set the pace in the pair
© Rowing Canada

Take a cold, snowy winter day, mix in some of the best rowers in the world, add the will to be Olympic athletes and a few autumn coloured maple leaves and you have the blend for Canada's rowing trials on Elk Lake, Victoria, British Columbia.

Canada has qualified 32 seats (seven boats) for the 2004 Olympic Games so far and Canadian rowers took the next step along the road to Olympic team selection this weekend.

Trials over 2000 metres in pairs and singles began with heats on Friday and finished on Sunday with the announcement of Olympic camp participants. The racing began under a layer of snow that saw athletes bundled up even while racing. 

The women's pair final ended in an upset when 2003 World Cup winners Jacqui Cook and Karen Clark were beaten by members of this years bronze medal winning eight, Roslyn McLeod and Buffy Williams. As part of the women's squad these athletes train together under head women's coach, Al Morrow.

?We knew it was going to be close,? said McLeod after the race. ?We have been racing each other in training and it's been a 50:50 split up to now?. The women's pair is treated as the priority boat and usually contains the top two rowers. However, at this stage McLeod is not sure where she and partner Williams will end up.

McLeod described the atmosphere as ?very charged? and enjoyed the intensity of a few upsets. ?It keeps everyone working hard.?

The lightweight men's pair saw Jon Mandick and this year's Head of the Charles open single winner, Jon Beare win the event. Mandick and Beare came from behind to finish three seconds ahead of Doug Vandor and Iain Brambell who came in second.  Olympians Gavin Hassett and Chris Davidson finished fourth behind under-23 gold medallists Dave Stephens and Mike Lewis. Stephens and Lewis came back after delaying races earlier in the day when they flipped in the icy waters of Elk Lake.

This year's World Champion Fiona Milne dominated the lightweight women's single winning by nine seconds over Mara Jones and Gen Meredith. Meanwhile the lightweight men's single ended in a photo finish with Matt Jensen of Innerkip pushing out Jeff Bujas.

The heavyweight men's pair event had rowers competing for 15 seats in the eight, four and pair which have already qualified for the Olympics. Andrew Hoskins and Joe Stankevicius led the pack followed by Dave Calder and Tom Herschmiller in second and last spring's trials' winners, Jake Wetzel and Barney Williams finishing in third.  

For a full list of Olympic Hopefuls and trial results go to: www.rowingcanada.org