Shawnigan Rowers Selected for BC and National teams
Eight Shawnigan alumni and one current student will be aiming for gold at national and provincial rowing levels as Rowing BC and Rowing Canada announced the teams for this summer’s championship events.
On the Canadian National Under 23 team, three alum from the class of ‘05 will compete, as Stephen Connolly and Geoff Roth join the Men’s 8+ and Max Lang will crew on the Men’s 4. All will be going to the World Championships being held July 23-26 in the Czech Republic to compete amongst 600 athletes from 40 countries.
A grad from this year, Alex Thorlakson, will join the Junior National Rowing Team as part of the Men’s 4+ and represent Canada at the World Rowing Junior Championships in Brive-la-Gaillarde, France on August 5-8. About 50 nations take part in the championships with close to 600 juniors competing and the event is known to launch a number of future stars. It’s the biggest regatta for juniors and most of the competitors row internationally for the first time.
That’s not an issue for Alex, however, who was on the Shawnigan 8+ crew that beat Eton College to win the Princess Elizabeth Cup at last year’s prestigious Henley Royal Regatta in England. He was also on the 4+ crew who took gold and the 8+ who won silver at this year’s Canadian Secondary Schools Rowing Association Regatta in St. Catharines, Ont. Alex plans to attend the University of Victoria in the fall.
Also no strangers to elite-level rowing with medals at Henley and the CSSRA, Jason Cartwright ’08, Rory Rees’09, and Brendan Downey ’09 will row for BC at the 2009 Canada Summer Games in PEI on August 15-29. Jason just completed his first year at Temple University, while this fall Rory will begin his first year at the University of British Columbia and Brendan heads to UVic.
The Women's entry at the Summer Games features two Shawnigan athletes, Katie Dick '08, and Maylies L. '10. Katie is currently attending and competing for Washington State University, while Maylies is Shawnigan’s Captain of Rowing and a vital part of the defending National Secondary School Champion Women's Eight in 2009/10, which will be her final year at Shawnigan. Adding to the Shawnigan flavour in the Women's competition is coach Danielle Beare, who forgoes her summer vacation to take on the task of guiding these talented young women to success.