Canadian rower Trevor Jones cruises to single sculls heat win to advance to quarters

Canada had a good day in the first qualifying round of rowing at the Tokyo Olympics as all three boats in competition are moving on.

Trevor Jones kicked off the festivities for Canada by winning his heat to advance to the quarter-finals in men's single sculls. The 23-year-old from Pointe-Claire, Que., passed Lithuania's Mindaugas Griškonis midway through the 2,000-metre race to win in a time of seven minutes 4.12 seconds.

Jones, who is making his Olympic debut and is Canada's first male single sculler since Derek Porter in Sydney 2000, trailed Griškonis at the 500-metre mark by 1.5 seconds, but at 1,000 metres led by 1.64 seconds. Turkey's Onat Kazakli finished third. The top three boats qualify for the quarter-finals.

"I'm just kind of having fun with it," Jones said. "[I'm] getting to race some of the best rowers in the world, it's some of the fastest people on the planet. I know I'm fast. I'm just going to have fun and enjoy the experience and just kind of take it day by day."

In women's singles, Hamilton, Ont.'s Carling Zeeman also moved on to the quarter-finals by finishing second in her heat. Zeeman, 30, is in her second Olympics after finishing 10th in Rio in 2016. She finished in a time of 7:40.72 behind Austria's Magdalena Lobnig.

"Each Games in their own right is special. To be in Tokyo after five years, it's a big deal," Zeeman said. "For me it's been a long journey getting here and I've had a pretty tough year just with a couple injuries here and there, a few setbacks, so now that I'm here, it's a pretty special feeling. For me, this is the fun part."

In women's doubles, Toronto's Gabrielle Smith and Vancouver's Jessica Sevick finished second in their heat in a time of 6:57.69 despite sitting dead last early in the race.

However, the pair began to make a run and at the halfway mark they were second and held on the rest of the way. They advance to the semifinals.

"It hasn't sunk in. It's honestly surreal," said Sevick. "Even with COVID, it's been an amazing experience so far."

"We were put together as partners, I don't know, maybe three days before COVID hit and everything was shut down," said Smith after the heat, which was her and Sevick's first international race together in the double. "It was obviously exciting that we got put together, but I felt like we never really got the chance to actually celebrate our partnership. Looking back at the past 16 months, there's a lot to be really proud of and a lot of fight and a lot of tenacity."