McGill's Sheehan quintuple golden at Royal Henley regatta

MONTREAL - Emma Sheehan, a native of St. Catharines, Ont., and member of the McGill University rowing club for the past two years, captured five gold medals at the recently completed 127th annual Royal Canadian Henley regatta, Aug. 4-9, in St. Catharines.

Sheehan helped the senior lightweight women's eight crew from the St. Catharines rowing club to finish atop the podium in both the 500-metre sprint - timed in one minute, 30.85 seconds - and the 2,000m race, which finished in 6:21.79.

She was also part of the winning under-23 lightweight crew in the eight (6:44.21) and four (6:56.24) in addition to teaming up with Kate Nay, a Brock University student, to win the U-23 women's pair in 7:29.07.

"We always wanted to do the pair, but this is the first time we've been given a shot," said Sheehan, a 20-year-old economics and industrial relations junior at McGill who averaged close to a dozen training sessions per week, during the summer, leading up to the event. "We mesh well and have good chemistry."

"But the most satisfying result for me was probably the senior eight," added Sheehan, who stands 5-foot-6 and now owns 10 Henley gold medals over her eight-year rowing career. "We broke the meet record by about four seconds and it was a great achievement because we raced against many nationally-carded athletes."

Sheehan now turns her focus back to the McGill club, which has scheduled their first meeting for Sept. 2 as they begin preparations to host the Canadian University rowing championships at the Olympic basin, Oct. 31.

The first competition of the fall is the Head of the Rideau regatta, in Ottawa, Sept. 27. McGill is also slated to compete at the Head of the Trent in Peterborough (Oct. 3), the Brock Invitational in St. Catharines (Oct. 10), the Head of the Charles in Cambridge, Mass., and the OUA championships in St. Catharines (Oct. 23).

OTHER MCGILL ATHLETES WHO COMPETED AT CANADIAN HENLEY

RINITA MAZUMDER

2nd place - Senior Women's LWT 8+ Dash (500m)

3rd place - Senior Women'sLWT 8+ (2000m)

4th place - U23 Women'sLWT 4+

6th place - U23 Women'sLWT Pair

BRENT HOPKINS & EVAN DE JONGHE

5th place - U23 Men's LWT Pair

RENAUD GENDRON

2nd place - Senior Men's LWT Pair

3rd place - U23 Men's LWT Single

OTHERS WHO FAILED TO QUALIFY FOR FINALS INCLUDE:

Senior Women's 4- (2000m, without coxswain): [McGill team:] Mara Edelman, Andrea Wilson, Mel Gabanna, and Claire Gowdy (starting McGill law this Fall).

IRIS KARRY- U23 Women's Quad; and the Senior LWT Women's Quad

SOURCE:

Earl Zukerman

Communications Officer

McGill Athletics & Recreation

514-398-7012