Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Ottawa 2006 Ontario Summer Games Officially Ends

Even though the Athletes Villages at Algonquin College and Carleton University were quiet on Saturday night with the departure of the participants from 18 of the 20 sports on the Games program (Athletics was held the weekend before on August 4-6), Monday afternoon saw the arrival of the 68 participants for the Games rowing competition at the Ottawa Rowing Club, Canada's oldest rowing club founded in 1867.

On Tuesday morning, the province's top Under 17 female and male rowers started the day by racing in 2000m time trials in both the double and mixed cox four events. The top three boats from the 2000m time trials advanced directly to the 500m sprint final A. Fourth to sixth place finishers from the 2000m time trials advanced to 500m sprint final B.

The final standings for the 500m sprint finals where Games medals were awarded were as follows:

Men's Double
1. Team White (Matt Jones, Hamilton Leander Boat Club / Cameron McLean-Bannon, Mississauga Don Rowing Club)
2. Team Yellow (Cameron Boyd, St. Catharines Ridley Graduat Boat Club / Erosh Damboragama, Mississauga Don Rowing Club)
3. Team Blue (Leigh Pauls, St. Catharines Ridley Graduate Boat Club / Joshua Smith, London Rowing Club)
4. Team Black (Nicholas Schudlo St. Catharines Rowing Club / Matthew Siddall, Orillia Rowing Club)
5. Team Red (Kyle Stansfield, Hamilton Leander Boat Club / James Corr, London Rowing Club)
6. Team Pink (Jason Kirkey, St. Catharines Rowing Club / Tim Herd, Orillia Rowing Club)

Women's Double
1. Team Red (Felicia Izaguirre, St. Catharines R.C./ Linnea Dicosimo, St. Catharines Ridley Graduate Boat Club)
2. Team Blue (Allison Burrell, Orillia R.C./ Katrina Pichelli, Welland South Niagara Rowing Club)
3. Team Pink (Elizabeth Carter, Barrie R.C./ Shannon Murphy, Mississauga Don Rowing Club)
4. Team Black (Christina Gravelle, St. Catharines R.C./ Chloe O'Neil, Mississauga Don Rowing Club)
5. Team Yellow (Brie-Anne Breton, Welland South Niagara Rowing Club/ Samantha Filipelli St. Catharines Ridley Graduate Boat Club)
6. Team White (Marie-Eve Lafontaine, Ottawa Rowing Club/ Sarah Gallagher, Welland South Niagara Rowing Club)

Mixed Coxed Four
1. Team Blue (Emma Dirks St. Catharines Rowing Club / Justin Bath Welland South Niagara Rowing Club / Corey Gander, Brockville Rowing Club / Stephanie Mowder St. Catharines Rowing Club / Beth Platts, Brockville Rowing Club)
2. Team Red (Vanessa Flores, St. Catharines Rowing Club / Taylor Sullivan St. Catharines Rowing Club / David Lariviere Hamilton Leander Boat Club / Heather Earle, Brockville Rowing Club / Maeghan Pardy, Brockville Rowing Club)
3. Team Pink (Devon Wood, Toronto Argonaut Rowing Club / Mike Fisher, St. Catharines Rowing Club / Ian Norton, Welland South Niagara Rowing Club / Sarah Wiley, St. Catharines Rowing Club / Margaret Frith, Brockville Rowing Club)
4. Team White (Justin Bontje, Hamilton Leander Boat Club / Dylan Coletto, St. Catharines Rowing Club / Joel Smylie, Brockville Rowing Club / Emily Richardson, London Rowing Club / Sydnee Kelly, Brockville Rowing Club)
5. Team Black (Kate Evely, Brockville Rowing Club / Ben Cushnie, Welland South Niagara Rowing Club / Robert Gage, Hamilton Leander Boat Club / Brianna Guerin, Brockville Rowing Club / Chelsea Smith, Ottawa Rowing Club)
6. Team Yellow (Matthew Bontje, Hamilton Leander Boat Club / William Malone, St. Catharines Rowing Club / Derek Makken, Welland South Niagara Rowing Club / Phoebe Lewis, Brockville Rowing Club / Erin O'Connor, Brockville Rowing Club)

Following the medal presentations, the rowing participants enjoyed a luncheon featuring guest speaker Robert Marland from the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games Gold Medal winning Canadian Men's Eights crew. His passion and commitment for the sport of rowing clearly showed during his presentation and his message for the athletes on how to achieve their personal goals was very motivational. After lunch, the rowing participants had some fun racing mixed eights against each other in a elimination format that saw the last place boats eliminated after each heat. Following the completion of the afternoon's racing, all the boats were put away and the Games competitions had officially come to a close. For the rowing participants, they were also able to enjoy a night visiting downtown Ottawa which included the Sound and Light Show on Parliament Hill, before they were to head home on Wednesday morning.