Part two of a two-part series.

After three intense weeks of racing, my Canada Summer Games (CSG) experience has come to an end.

The beginning of August was spent in St. Catherine’s, home to the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta, also known as Henley. Henley is one of the biggest rowing regattas in North America. My coaches brought our team there to prepare us not only physically, but mentally for what was waiting for us in Prince Edward Island

This was my first year at Henley, which consists of five gruelling days of racing in which every race counts. In order to move on to semi-finalss you must place in the top two or three in your heats. To get to finals you must place in the top two or three in your semi. Every race counts and any mistake could cost you.

Racing against the elite clubs that attend Henley prepared us for what was to come. Though my boats (the 8+ and 4-) didn’t make it to finals, the 4- made it to semis, we had some quality races and got the experience needed for our ultimate goal: CSG.

We had five days between Henley and leaving for P.E.I., and a lot of work to do. Our last little bit of training was focused on high rate (the rate is how many strokes you take per minute—the higher the rate, the faster your boat should move) and high power pieces.

“ The closer we got to leaving, the higher the tensions grew.

The closer we got to leaving, the higher the tensions grew. Put 23 hormonal teenagers in two houses for two weeks and you are asking for trouble. At times we wanted to shove an oar down each other’s throats, but as corny as it sounds, we were a team and we stuck it out.
Finally, we loaded the boats onto the trailer, packed our stuff up and headed to the airport. The anticipation of games was huge. We had been so focused on this for such a long time, it was hard to believe it was finally here.

We landed in Summerside, P.E.I. and once we got off the plane it was the VIP treatment all the way. Athletes’ village was on an old airforce base, so we actually walked off the plane into our dorm rooms, which were only a five-minute walk from the runway. Everything was available to us whenever we needed it, from food to entertainment and more.

Playtime was over. It was time to step up and put everything on the line. Some of us (not me, but many of the others on team) had been rowing for four to five years, and no matter the experience level we had all worked hard the last year and wanted to represent our province well.

Disappointment, regret, frustration, defeat. All these words are a part of an athlete’s vocabulary at some point or another. The results we had at CSG were not what we had expected. Both my boats came in eighth place (yes, there were only eight boats). The team walked away with one medal; gold from the women’s single.

I guess no one will ever know the answer to that timeless question: “What went wrong?” The important thing is to walk away from this with the attitude that experience and memories gained from this last year will last a lifetime. Though medals are nice to get, experience in high level races are ultimately more valuable.

For more information on rowing, visit Manitoba Post Secondary Rowing at www.mpsr.org. This organization is responsible for the University of Winnipeg’s rowing program. New programs start in early September.

Read the first part of Tersigni’s article.

Published in Volume 64, Number 1 of The Uniter (September 3, 2009)