Competing at the World Rowing Cup III in Poznan, Poland, Canada's mixed paralympic rowing team taught the rest of the world how it's done, and a Greater Sudbury athlete was part of that team.
Laurentian University student Curtis Halladay is a member of Canada's LTA mixed coxed four rowing team. The team was the 2015 bronze medal winners, so they were in Poland last week with an eye to turn that bronze into gold.
And turn it they did. On Saturday, the Canadians passed the halfway point first, charging ahead of South Africa and Germany. Canada held onto the lead and crossed the finish line with an open water lead over South Africa.
The team began the season with a fifth-place finish in April at the Gavirate International Regatta in Italy. Canada qualified the mixed coxed four at the 2015 World Rowing Championships in Aiguebelette, France, in September with a third-place finish.
Halladay, a sport and physical education student at LU, began competing in rowing in 2013. Prior to that though, he was into motocross.
Then, in 2012, he suffered a bad crash, and a bad break that almost required a full hip replacement. Surgery worked but Halladay was left with a condition known as "drop foot," which left him with one paralyzed foot.
That's when he discovered rowing through a chance meeting with Amanda Schweinbenz, varsity rowing coach at Laurentian. He'd pretty much given up on competing, he told Sudbury Sports Magazine last year, until Schweinbenz came along, that is.
After rowing for only a year, the then 20-year-old won gold in the 1,000-metre Legs, Trunk and Arms Physical Disability event, breaking a world record at the same time during the Canadian Indoor Rowing Championship.
A month later, he broke his own world record and won gold at the World Indoor Rowing Championships at Boston University, beating the second-place rower by more than 10 seconds.
Canada has qualified seven boats for the Olympic Games and one for the Paralympic Games. The team of athletes competing at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games will be announced at the end of July by RCA (Rowing Canada Aviron) and the Canadian Paralympic Committee.
RCA, alongside the Canadian Olympic Committee, will announce the team of athletes competing at the Rio 2016 Olympics on June 28.
The 2016 Canadian Rowing Team at World Cup 3 is:
- Victoria Nolan (Argonaut Rowing Club – Toronto, ON)
- Curtis Halladay (Laurentian University – Sudbury, ON)
- Andrew Todd (Ottawa Rowing Club – Thunder Bay, ON)
- Meghan Montgomery (Victoria Training Centre – Winnipeg, MB)
- Kristen Kit (University of British Columbia/California Rowing Club – St. Catharines, ON).
