Team Canada Claims 4 Medals at Junior Pan Ams

The Canadian rowing team is bringing home some hardware from Asuncion, Paraguay as four Canadian boats reached the podium at the 2025 Junior Pan Am Games.

Hosted in Asuncion Bay, the Junior Pan Am Games regatta wrapped up on Wednesday, Aug. 13 after five days of competition. Team Canada sent a total of six boats to the starting line, with two men and nine women comprising the squad, meaning many of the athletes pulled double or triple duty competing in multiple events. All boats raced in the A Final in their events with the team earning one silver and three bronze medals over the course of the regatta. The silver medal belonged to the women’s eight, while bronze medals were won by the women’s double, pair, and four.

The women’s four (Riley Richardson, Ella McKinley, Firinne Rolfe, Alessandra Tuttle) earned the first medal of the regatta for Canada on Sunday, finishing behind Chile and Paraguay in a time of 6:48.74. Tuesday’s action saw three medals awarded to Canada, starting with the women’s double of Jalyn Mowry and Tess Friar. The Peterborough Rowing Club duo finished first in their opening heat to qualify for the A Final, where they placed third behind the boats from Brazil and Chile in a time of 7:23.60. The women’s pair (McKinley, Richardson) were next on the course for Canada and claimed the bronze in a time of 7:34.63 behind Chile and Paraguay. In the last race of the day the women’s eight started strong and were neck and neck with Chile at the 1000m mark, before falling off the pace in the second half of the race to cross the finish line four seconds behind in a time of 6:27.64 to claim the silver medal.

McKinley, who previously trained at the Ontario NextGen Performance Centre before moving on to Syracuse University and Richardson, an Ottawa Rowing Club product who currently rows for the University of Virginia, each earned three medals at the event as members of the pair, four and eight. Friar and Mowry earned two medals (2x, 8+) as did BC’s Wolfe and Tuttle (4-, 8+).

On the men’s side, Western University’s Oliver Baker and Kyland Mels-Williams competed in the men’s double, with Baker also competing in the men’s single. The duo was coached by the ONGPC’s Chris Marshall at the event and opened their regatta with a second-place finish in their preliminary heat on Saturday. They competed later in the day in a tight race in the repechage, finishing fourth to qualify for Sunday’s A Final. In the final, they were in contention for a medal from start to finish in a close race between the top four boats. They ended the race in fourth place, just three seconds off the pace of first place Brazil and 0.4 seconds behind third place Mexico in a time of 6:35.04.

Baker was back on the course on Tuesday, competing in the preliminary heat in the men’s single. After a fifth-place finish in the first heat, he bounced back to finish second in the repechage to qualify for Wednesday’s final. In the final, he came fifth in a time of 7:22.44 behind medal-winners from Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil.

Team Canada finished the regatta fourth in the overall medal standings for rowing with four medals, behind Chile (12), Brazil (10) and host Paraguay (6). Action for other sports at the Junior Pan Am Games will continue until August 23.

For more on the 2025 Junior Pan Am Games, visit Asuncion 2025.

Picture is property of Rowing Canada Aviron.