The Evening Times Globe August 23^rd,1985

By: FRANCIS CAMPBELL

Gold Winners - Chris Flood and Wayne MacFarlane men’s pair final with a time of 5:17.85 at the Canada Summer Games strain their way through the finish line to win the gold in the Summer Games on Thursday.

New Brunswick oarsmen stroked two gold and two bronze medal winning boats before wildly enthusiastic spectators Thursday on the Kennebecasis River at Renforth.

Chris Flood and Wayne MacFarlane lived up to Saint John's traditional strength in the sport by out- pacing the favored the B.C. boat in the men's pairs by almost 10 seconds,

The other gold came in the men's quads, while the province picked up a bronze in double sculls and another bronze in the women's eight.

It was a flashback to the historic days when Saint John area rowers and scullers dominated the oarsmen's world. And the crowds, lining the riverbank last night must have outnumbered the throngs at the famous 1871 river match which gave the village of Renforth its name (after British rower James Renforth who collapsed and died during that historic race.)

Flood said that he and MacFarlane, the favorites to win gold in the pairs, started off strong, opening a boat length lead by the 200 metre mark.

"We were in the lead and could look over the field. We saved a bit for the end. We could hear the crowd at the end and that gave us a little extra push. We knew B.C. was the team to I beat but we held them off.

Team members were high in their praise of their coach, Keith Ratcliffe, who started building the winning combination four years ago, and who had predicted medal wins from "this quality group."

The close medal races that coaches had been predicting all week came to the fore in New Brunswick's gold medal run in the men's quads. Dave and Don Dickison and Peter and John Oxley, the host crew, beat the B.C. squad by about half a second.

Don Dickison, the 18-year-old Fredericton rower, said the brothers didn't know if they had won the race.

"We were told we won but we weren't sure. We were relieved when we heard it over the microphone."

Dickison said it felt great to win two medals in one evening. The Dickisons had earlier won a bronze medal behind B.C. and Quebec in the men's double sculls.

Dickison said the sculls race felt good to the brother combination but it just wasn't enough to finish first.

"I was quite upset with the bronze medal. I thought we could have done a lot better. The gold makes up for it though. All that time and effort paid off."

Dickison called it a great crowd that lined the banks of the river in Renforth, a community that is rich in rowing tradition and which was renamed for an English rower who died there more than 100 years ago. "I've been psyched before in a race and never heard the crowd at all, but we had no choice here."

Angela Buck, the 18-year-old stroke of the bronze medal winning women's eight boat said the crew was happy with a bronze medal. The color doesn't matter, the Fredericton rower said.

Buck said the women's eights and fours were ready for the races and were going for gold. Other members of the eights crew are Jill Blois, Tammy Denning, Leslie Fellows, Natalie Folster, Jennifer Keddy, Paula Kendall, Traci Morissey and Pam Pickles.

B.C. crew captured six medals on the evening, three gold and three silver. The western rowers won gold in the women's single sculls, women's eights and men's double sculls. They settle for silver in the men's pairs, men's quads and women's fours with cox.

Ontario women's, boats finished with a gold in the fours with cox, silver in the eights and a bronze in the single sculls.

The remaining seven rowing finals will be contested this evening with the men's single sculls, straight fours, fours with cox and eights with cox and the women's pairs, double sculls and quads medals on the line.

B.C. won by more than four seconds in each of its gold medal races but it lost the men's quad by about half a second when New Brunswick battled back in the final few meters to grab the victory in five minutes. 4.28 seconds.

Neither crew was positive it had won at the end of the race.

"All three coach boats said that we had won it, but they said they didn't know by how much," said rower Don Dickison of Fredericton. "It was that close."

"It was a photo finish. They (the judges) were talking two to three inches."

Dickison, twin brother of fellow crew member Dave, said New Brunswick took the lead at the beginning of the race and tried to hold on.

"B.C., from the 500-metre mark, is famous for their build (kick) and they did pull out a little bit in front; but I guess we built a little higher. We wanted this one."

Earlier, the twins finished a disappointing third behind B.C., and Quebec in the men's double skulls.

British Columbia began the night on a promising note with Karen Rothe's win over Michele Murphy of Dorion, Que., in the women's single Sculls.

British Columbia also won the women's eight with coxswain and was second in the men's pair and the women's four.

The rowing allowed B.C. to remain ahead of Quebec in second place in the gold-medal count. Ontario leads the medal standings with 45 goal, 32 silver and 21 bronze. B.C. has 22 gold, 21 silver and 17 bronze while Quebec has 19 gold, 30 silver and 30 bronze.

Alberta guaranteed itself at least two more silver medals when its softball and soccer teams advanced to the finals.

Alberta beat Saskatchewan 4-3 in one women's softball semifinal while Ontario edged New Brunswick 1-0 in the other.

In semifinals today, B.C. plays Quebec and Alberta meets Ontario in rugby, it will be Quebec versus Ontario and B.C. versus Nova Scotia in lacrosse; and Manitoba will play New Brunswick while Ontario meets Alberta in basketball.

The fifth Canada Summer Games wind up Saturday.