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16 Sports Oakville Beaver SPORTS EDITOR:JONKUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 432) Fax 905-337-5571 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 2012 Van Beilen falls short of finals appearance Unfortunately for Tera Van Beilen, her first Olympic experience likely won't include an appearance in a final. The 19-year-old swimmer was eliminated from women's 200-metre breaststroke qualifying yesterday (Wednesday) in London after finishing 21st. The top 16 in qualifying advanced to the semifinals. Van Beilen reached the wall in a time of 2:27.70, finishing seventh in her heat. Her time was nearly three seconds slower than the 2:24.81 clocking she posted to win Canadian trials earlier this year, a time that ranked her seventh in the world. Earlier at the Games, the Oakville Aquatic Club product narrowly missed out on qualifying for the women's 100m breaststroke final. Van Beilen finished the semifinals in a tie for the eighth and final entry to the finals, but lost a swim-off to Jamaica's Alia Atkinson. "It was mentally hard coming off a race, knowing you had to do it again," Van Beilen said afterwards. Van Beilen could still possibly compete at the IAN MACNICOL / SWIMMING CANADA Olympics as part of the Canadian women's medley relay team, but is a darkhorse candidate to be selected for the OLYMPIC ACTION: Oakville swimmer Tera Van Beilen powers through the water during women's 200-metre breaststroke qualifying yesterday (Wednesday) at the Olympics in London. The 19-year-old did not advance to the semifinals, finishing 21st overall. squad. Canadian men rebounded after disastrous heats in the heats as the Olympic competition got underway Saturday. It finished fourth -- last by nine seconds -- behind I'm standing on the podium with a medal." Never mind what he and his teammates had overcome in Germany, Great Britain and the Netherlands. "I'd be lying if I said we weren't nervous after the heats. the last four years, they had to fight through the doubts that There was huge anxiety," the Iroquois Ridge grad said. "We had surfaced in the last four days. got a little too excited. We wanted to show the Germans how Due to its past success, Canada's men's eights has become fast we were and put a stamp on the the country's highest profile summer "It's pretty hard to describe. It regatta. We went off a little fast, and with Olympic team. Since 1984, no sport has was just a huge weight taken only two guys back (from the last produced more gold medals (seven) or Olympics), we showed our inexperience. total medals (23) for Canada than row- off our shoulders. I feel so good We were a little shell shocked." ing. And the men's eights is Canada's for the guys and how we all With a day off between the heats and most decorated crew. It's not quite hockcame together. And now we Monday's repechage, the crew worked on ey in the winter Olympics, but there are have a silver medal to share its change of pace, finding a sustainable heightened expectations for the eights with our family and our friends stroke rate and rebuilding its confidence. -- witness Canada's fifth-place finish in They came out looking like an entirely Athens that was viewed as a huge disap- who have given us so much different crew, finishing second less than pointment coming off back-to-back world support." six-tenths of a second behind Great championship victories. Britain to secure their place in Even with six first-time Olympians in Oakville rower Doug Csima Wednesday's final. It turned out to be this year's eights, there were hopes for a exactly the kind of race the Canadians needed. medal. Csima had been a member of the crews that won "We knew the Brits were a fast crew," Csima said of the bronze at the 2011 world championships and a silver in 2009, silver medalists from the last two world championships. and the Olympic crew had set a world record in the heats at "They've been pushing the Germans so we knew that if we a World Cup earlier this year. were close to the Brits, we had a chance to get on the podiBut, matched against a powerhouse German crew that has um." gone undefeated since 2009, Canada had a disastrous outing Continued from page 1 Canada was third throughout the race and was still a second back of Great Britain as they hit the three-quarter mark on the 2,000-metre course. Over the final 250 metres, Canada surged past the British crew, which wasn't able to meet their challenge, finishing 1.2 seconds behind the Canadians while Germany took the gold. As they crossed the line, an exhausted Csima fell back into the lap of teammate Gabriel Bergen. "It's pretty hard to describe," Csima said of the finish. "It was just a huge weight taken off our shoulders. I feel so good for the guys and how we all came together. And now we have a silver medal to share with our family and our friends who have given us so much support." And Csima was certainly in the mood to share. "It's definitely been working its way around," he said of the medal. "A couple of times I've had to ask, `Have you seen my medal?'" Csima will have a lifetime to have a closer look at it, but even though it had only been hours since it was first hung around his neck, he already likes what he sees. "This medal is big and it's heavy, but that's great," he said. "It reflects the work that it took to get it." -- Herb Garbutt can be followed on Twitter @Herbgarbutt