CHUNGJU, South Korea — Eric Woelfl of St. Catharines, Ont., and Brendan Hodge of Delta, B.C., advanced to the lightweight men’s crew A final Wednesday after winning their repechage at the world rowing championships.
Canada finished in six minutes 50.59 seconds, followed by Austria in a time of 6:54.28. The United States, Japan and Korea were relegated to the B final.
"We told ourselves that as long as we stuck to our strengths, we’d be fine," said Woelfl. "We were calm and collected throughout the race and we got the job done. We have to stay internal, but be aggressive, in the final."
In the lightweight men’s single, Nick Pratt of Kingston, Ont., was third to advance to the semifinal.
Denmark dominated the race to finish in 7:09.59, followed by Mexico 7:15.58 and Canada’s Pratt in 7:18.62. This year’s lightweight single field is deep with 28 entries.
"I tried to hold a little back for the semi tomorrow," said Pratt. "It’s going to be a tougher challenge to try to make it through to the A final."