Julia Rivard of North Bay, Ont., badly sprained her ankle in the warmup for the women's K-4 500m final Sunday.

 The Canadian crew, which also included Marie-Josee Gibeau-Ouimet of Lachine, Que., Carrie Lightbound of Mississauga, Ont., and Jain Kamini of Calgary, finished ninth and last, but Rivard refused to use the injury as an excuse.

 "It hurt a lot in the warmup and after the race, but during the race, it didn't hurt at all," said Rivard, who had the ankle heavily taped and was carried around by two of her teammates after the race. She was heading off for x-rays.

 "Maybe it was in the back of my mind, but I had other things to think about. I've been through things like that before."

 Rivard was jumping up and down before the race to get the blood flowing in her legs when she rolled over on the ankle.

 The gold was won by a crew from Germany while the silver went to Hungary and the bronze to Romania.

 "There's no way we're happy with ninth, but we're not so disappointed with the race itself," said Rivard.

 "In an Olympic year, everybody is training their guts out. The level just lifts in an Olympic year. We weren't bad. It just wasn't our day.

 In the men's C-2, 1000m final, brothers Tamas and Attila Buday of Mississauga finished seventh in a race that was won by a crew from Romania.

 "We're happy. Maybe we could have pinched a bronze," said Tamas, who was heading off to party with girlfriend Catherine Garceau, who won a bronze medal in sychronized swimming the day before.

 "We kind of stopped with 200 metres to go so we wouldn't leave our lane because of the waves and that kind of threw us off.

 "But there's no point banging our heads against the wall. We've got to be happy. My girlfriend got a bronze. I could be happier, but what can you do? We were seventh in the Olympics and there's nothing wrong with that.

 "I hope nobody at home is disappointed with us because we're not disappointed."