Porter claims men's single silver

LUCERNE, SWITZERLAND (CP) -- Canada has qualified two more boats for the Olympic rowing competition in Sydney this fall.

FISA, the international rowing federation, confirmed yesterday that Canada's men's double and lightweight women's double will be allowed to row at the Summer Games.

That will bring the number of Canadian crews at the Olympics to nine.

The men's double is Todd Hallett of Dartmouth, N.S., and Dominic Seiterle of Montreal, with Brian Siebert of Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., the spare.

The women's lightweight double is Fiona Milne of Niagara-on-the-Lake and Tracy Duncan of Saskatoon, with Gen Meredith of Ste. Anne-de-Bellevue, Que., the spare.

Both crews have met Canadian national rowing team standards, and were a close third in international qualification races on July 12, just missing out on Olympic berths.

After calculating the number of rowers allowed to participate in Sydney, crew invitations were revised.

In World Cup Final regatta action yesterday, Canada won two silvers and two bronze. Victoria's Derek Porter of Victoria finished second in the men's single event in six minutes 54.150 seconds, behind 1999 world champion Rob Waddell of New Zealand who was first in 6:53.13.

"It felt pretty good this weekend," said Porter, silver medallist in the single at the 1996 Olympics.

"It shows I'm back in the hunt."

Porter was leading for the first half of the 2000-metre race.

"The results are very encouraging," said Porter's coach, Pat Newman. "All the work we've done in Canada is paying off."

Also winning a silver today behind Romania was the Canadian women's eight: Laryssa Biesenthal, Walkerton; Buffy Alexander, St. Catharines; Dorota Urbaniak, Toronto; Heather Davis, Vancouver; Heather McDermid, Calgary; Alison Korn of Nepean; Emma Robinson, Winnipeg; Theresa Luke, 100 Mile House, B.C., and cox Lesley Thompson, London.

"We had an awesome race," said Korn. "The event has stepped up a few notches and nothing is guaranteed, but we are very excited."

Robinson and Luke won a bronze in the women's coxless pairs win by Romania.

In the lightweight men's pair event, a non-Olympic boat class, Ben Storey of Whitehorse and Ed Winchester of Rothesay, N.B., won a bronze medal.

The pair will compete in the non-Olympic world championships in Zagreb, Croatia, early next month.