Niagara athletes help Canada’s women’s eights qualify for the Paris Olympics in rowing

The Canadian women’s eight-rowing team earned a chance to defend its gold medal row from Tokyo with a fifth-place finish at the World Rowing Championships Sunday in Belgrade, Serbia, qualifying the squad for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

Canada finished the race in six minutes 7.15 seconds, taking the last Olympic qualification spot ahead of the Italian crew.

Romania won gold in 6:01.28, followed by the silver medallists from the U.S. (6:03.73), while Australia (6:04.17) held on for bronze.

The Canada boat included rower Morgan Rosts of Jordan, with Kristen Kit of St. Catharines serving as coxswain.

Kit was one of three holdovers from the Olympic winning eights squad from Tokyo, along with Sydney Payne of Toronto and Kasia Gruchalla-Wesierski of Calgary.