Canada's Olympians have won another four medals, capped by a gold medal performance by the men's eight crew in rowing, erasing any memories of the crew's fourth-place finish in Athens.
"I've been thinking about it ever since,'' Kyle Hamilton told reporters Sunday about the disappointing finish in 2004. "I never thought I'd get the opportunity to be a favourite in an Olympics again.
"Just to come in as a favourite is an amazing experience. To do it twice is just amazing and to win ... I can't say anymore.''
In Athens, the Canadian crew had been heavily favoured to win but ended up finishing fifth. But there was no nightmare ending this time to the dream of Olympic gold.
"I knew that we had won it, there was nobody coming back at that point,'' coxswain Brian Price told reporters Sunday in Beijing, as he talked about raising his arms near the finish line. "I kept telling them to keep on cranking.''
Canada won in a time of five minutes 23.89 seconds. Britain captured silver with a 5:25.11 performance, and the United States earned bronze in 5:25.34.
The eight is comprised of Hamilton of Richmond, B.C., Adam Kreek of London, Ont., Dominic Seiterle and Malcolm Howard of Victoria, Jake Wetzel of Saskatoon, Andrew Byrnes of Toronto, Ben Rutledge of Cranbrook, B.C., Kevin Light of Sidney, B.C., and Price of Belleville, Ont.
More rowing success
The lightweight men's four and lightweight women's double crews each captured bronze.
"We started everything we could in the first 500 to get ourselves into the race and essentially through the middle it's a dogfight, everybody wants a piece of it,'' said Ian Brambell of the men's four crew. "We knew that we had a really solid 500 and it was just a matter of not waiting for it but going, everyone together. We closed the eyes and went for it.''
The Canadians with a time of 5:50.09 -- just back of Poland, which took silver in 5:49.39. Denmark won gold in 5:47.76.
"Coming into the last 500 we seemed to get our rhythm and Ian said 'Go for it,' we committed everything we had and went,'' said Parsons. "We knew it was tight, we really had no idea where we were when we started that sprint.
"It was exhausting. There wasn't anything left in the end.''
The team has had a challenging week. Coach Bent Jensen is battling pancreatic cancer. He is getting chemotherapy treatments from the team doctor.
The foursome consists of Brambell of Victoria, Jon Beare of Toronto, Mike Lewis of Victoria and Parsons of Thunder Bay, Ont.
About 40 minutes earlier, Melanie Kok of St. Catharines, Ont., and Tracy Cameron of Shubenacadie, N.S. held on for bronze after a strong challenge by the Germans.
They finished in 6:56.68, with the Germans 0.04 seconds behind. The Netherlands won gold in 6:54.74 while Finland took silver in 6:56.03.
"I thought we had it,'' said Cameron. "When we looked over I could see that our bow ball was definitely in front of the Germans. It was just making sure the judges were with us.''
"We're pretty pleased,'' said Kok. "After our first two races, we kind of had a tendency of sort of getting caught in the last 500 so we made it our mission to really execute that last 500 and lay it all down on the line and I think we did that.''
Back in Nova Scotia, Cameron's family and friends stayed up all night so they could watch the performance live from China. They huddled together, sitting in front of a TV set, feverishly cheering their star athelete on.
One family member called the race the "longest six minutes" of her life.
"She sacrificed so much and we're just so proud," Cameron's aunt Judy Dawe told CTV Atlantic.
The women's eight crew missed the podium by 0.79 seconds. They finished fourth with a 6:08.04 performance. The bronze-medal-winning Romanians finished in 6:07.25. The United States took gold in 6:05.34, and the Netherlands finished strongly to capture silver in 6:08.04.
"The women were solidly in third place until the last 100 yards when they were edged out," CTV's Steve Chao told Newsnet from Beijing on Sunday.
Canada's fourth medal on the day came from Ryan Cochrane of Victoria. He won bronze in the 1,500-metre freestyle swimming event.
"I'm so happy with it," said Cochrane, a University of Victoria student who is just 19. "It was a hard race. I think the first half took a lot out of me for the second half. I just couldn't be happier."
Medal tally
Canada's total of seven medals propels it into 15th place overall, but far behind powerhouses like the U.S. (65, 19 gold) and China (57, 32 gold). Canada had hoped for a top-16 finish.
Chao said Canadian Olympic officials predict another seven medals over the next seven days of competition. If that holds, Canada would finish with 14 medals, two better than its performance in Athens -- but far below its total of 22 at the 1996 Games in Atlanta. "They're not predicting exactly where these medals will come from," he said.
With files from The Canadian Press
