Beare grabs bronze in Beijing!
8/17/2008
Canada’s lightweight men’s four team, including UCC alumnus Jon Beare and fellow crew members Iain Brambell, Mike Lewis and Liam Parsons, have won Olympic bronze.
Early this morning (August 17), they crossed the finish line at Shunyi Olympic rowing park, near Beijing, with a time of five minutes, 50.09 seconds. Denmark took gold and Poland, silver.
“It goes without saying that coming away from the games with a medal is an incredible feeling,” wrote Beare from Beijing Sunday. “I am full of pride with how the Canadian Rowing Team represented our country at this regatta, and am looking forward to sharing this with all those who’ve supported and cheered along the way.”
A member of UCC’s graduating Class of 1992, Jon Beare has been a member of the National Rowing Team since 1995. Beare and his teammates came fifth in the same event in Athens, in 2004, and seventh in the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
“It was also quite unique to have my ‘little brother’ from Martlands, Barney [Williams] commentating the races for the CBC, who four years ago won Olympic silver in the men’s four,” added Beare. In late 2007, Wiliams, a member of UCC’s Class of 1996, retired from the National Rowing Team and is currently providing expert commentary on rowing events.
Concluding his message from Beijing, Beare wrote: “I now look forward to heading home, and spending time with my wife in her last month of pregnancy.”