By Dan Plouffe
Kate Goodfellow had to wait until the very end of the July 11-15 Pan Am Games rowing competition to get in on the Canadian medal party, but the Ottawa Rowing Club athlete joined in a big way with an emphatic victory in the women’s quadruple sculls event Wednesday morning in St. Catharines.
“It was ours to win,” recounted Goodfellow, whose team had built a lead of 2.63 seconds at the halfway point and cruised in over 8 seconds ahead of 2nd-place USA. “We all just did a really good job of staying composed. None of us doubted that whatever was thrown at us for the last half of the race we wouldn’t be able to handle. We just kept slugging away at it.”
The spectators at the Royal Canadian Henley race course welcomed home Goodefellow, Kerry Shaffer, Carling Zeeman and Antje von Seydlitz – the second of three Canadian boats to win consecutive golds to close the rowing competition.
“This is a pretty big moment,” identified the Perth native who took up the sport as a rookie University of Ottawa Gee-Gee. “It’s been amazing – from the Opening Ceremonies, and any time we’ve been in front of this home crowd, this last few days, watching the Canadian team do so well, and now to be able to cap it off like this.”
A 6th-place quad finisher in rough waters at last year’s World Championships, Goodfellow will look to finish at least one place higher at the 2015 worlds Aug. 30-Sept. 6 in France where the top-5 will earn berths in the 2016 Olympics.
Look for more detailed coverage in August’s Ottawa Sportspage newspaper.
Check out more photos from Sportspage photographer Steve Kingsman http://stevekingsman.photoshelter.com/gallery-collection/Toronto-Pan-Am-Games-2015/C0000RjOJ9eEDQHU here.
~ SUPPORT LOCAL JOURNALISM ~
We need your help to keep producing the local sports news you can’t find anywhere else!