Kayakers Andrew Willows and Richard Dober land in sixth place

The two Quebec athletes ended the finals at under a second in the third ranking. “We would have wanted a better ranking but we are satisfied anyway. We could have done better that day. We didn’t make any mistakes, but the competition was really tight between third and sixth place.”

At the start of the finals, Willows and Dober received a warning for a false start. “We were mentally prepared for this warning. We took a chance because we were sure that the Belarusians were going to steal the start. They do it each time. They did it during the preliminaries and still qualified as first in line. The starting monitor was Belarusian and he normally does not issue a warning, but during the elimination round, he was notified. We promised ourselves that we wouldn’t do the same trick twice. We knew that the next monitor would do the right thing. Our strength lies in the starting line, so there shouldn’t be any arguments.”

As sixth placers, the two Canadians finished at 2.121 seconds for the Gold while the Spaniards dominated from the beginning to the end. World champions and Olympic medallists since 2001, the Germans landed in second place while the Bronze medals were awarded to…the Belarusians.

The two athletes will continue to compete together in the next world championships. For Andrew Willows, the end of the Olympic Games marks the end of a cycle. After four years in LaSalle, the kayaker will be moving to Carleton Place near Ottawa, his birthplace. “That wouldn’t be a problem in terms of training with Richard. We will be separated until next spring, and then we’ll start to work again, perhaps more often in Ottawa.”

Andrew Willows and Richard Dober flew to Peking on August 5. After a 17-hour flight that seemed to last forever from Toronto to Chicago and then onwards to Peking, the Canadian kayakers finally arrived in China. “We took a 45-minute bus ride for Dragon Villas, the hotel in which we were assigned for the duration of the Games. It is located five minutes from the Shunyi Basin where the competitions were held.”

On competition day, they headed for Olympic Village for the opening ceremonies. Andrew Willows said: “While we marched, I felt really proud to be representing Canada. Some sentiments I felt during my rigorous training were revived. I wanted to achieve my goals and represent my country. We stood for several hours to walk for a few minutes during the athletes’ parade. The heat was incredible. I lost four pounds. It really wasn’t that bad because our competition was held only on the 19th day of the Games.”

A native of Gananoque, Ontario, Andrew Willows stands 6 feet and 2 inches and weighs 195 pounds. Willows’ hobbies? I do woodwork, water sports and mountain skiing. He first competed internationally at the World Junior Championships in 1997 in Finland when he was just 17 years old. He studied Kinesiology at McGill University from 2000 to 2002.