By CHRIS STEVENSON -- SLAM! Sports
 PENRITH LAKES, Australia -- They cried almost enough tears to float their boat.

 And that was before Canada's women's eight won a bronze medal at the Olympic rowing regatta Sunday, preventing Canada's armada from being shut out on the pond.

 "It's been so emotional. There have been a few tears here and there," said Nepean, Ont.'s Alison Korn.

 "It's funny to be so strong physically and to be on the cusp of emotion like that, so ready to go.

 "Then I saw (gold medal winning sprinter) Marion Jones take a minute and shed a few tears (Saturday night) and I said, 'it's okay that I'm weeping. Maybe because this is the last race for a few of us."

 The crew shed tears Saturday night in a meeting and again before the race, but the emotion was obviously put to good use.

 The Canadian boat got off to a good start and was fourth through 500 metres. It had moved up to third by the halfway point of the race and then hung on to finish third behind Romania and the Netherlands.

 "It's been quite an emotional week,"said Heather McDermid of Calgary. "It was a fairly rough go. A lot of us there thinking this would be the last row. Before the race there were nine of us crying again."

 The women's eight, which won the silver medal in Atlanta, captured Canada's only rowing medal of the regatta which will be viewed as a disaster by some.

 The rowers won five of Canada's 18 medals in Barcelona in 1992 and six of Canada's 22 in Atlanta four years ago.

 "We felt badly for our friends," said Korn. "Their dreams didn't come true. At the same time, we knew they raced as hard as they could. Same in some other sports."

 "For us, there was no pressure," said McDermid. "We could have said this was our last medal chance (in rowing). Everyone else tried their best and put their best on the line. It just didn't work out. We just wanted to do the best we could."

 Rounding out the crew is cox Lesley Thompson, who's from London, Ont., Heather Davis of Vancouver, Dorota Urbaniak of Toronto, Theresa Luke of 100 Mile House, B.C., Emma Robinson of Winnipeg, Laryssa Biesenthal of Walkerton, Ont., and Buffy Alexander of St. Catharines, Ont.

 It's the same crew which finished second to the Romanians at FISA World Cup in Lucerne in July. That race saw the Romanian boat edge Canada by 1.34 seconds, while Canada was just 8/100ths of a second ahead of Australia.

 The Romanians won the gold Sunday in six minutes, 6.44 seconds. The Netherlands won the silver with a time of 6:09.39 while Canada came in third with a time of 6:11.58.

 Belarus was fourth, Australia fifth and the Americans sixth.

 Results
 SYDNEY, Australia (AP)-- Results Sunday from the rowing event at the Summer Olympics:
 Men
 Lightweight Double Sculls
 Final
 1, Poland (Tomasz Kucharski; Robert Sycz), 6:21.75.
 2, Italy (Elia Luini; Leonardo Pettinari), 6:23.47.
 3, France (Pascal Touron; Thibaud Chapelle), 6:24.85.
 4, Germany (Ingo Euler; Bernhard Ruehling), 6:26.54.
 5, Switzerland (Markus Gier; Michael Gier), 6:28.52.
 6, Japan (Hitoshi Hase; Daisaku Takeda), 6:29.74.
 Lightweight Four Without Cox
 Final
 1, France (Laurent Porchier; Jean-Christophe Bette; Yves Hocde; Xavier Dorfman), 6:01.68.
 2, Australia (Simon Burgess; Anthony Edwards; Darren Balmforth; Robert Richards), 6:02.09.
 3, Denmark (Soren Madsen; Thomas Ebert; Eskild Ebbesen; Victor Feddersen), 6:03.51.
 4, Italy (Salvatore Amitrano; Franco Sancassani; Catello Amarante; Carlo Gaddi), 6:03.77.
 5, South Africa (Mark Raeside Rowand; Ross Hawkins; Roger Tobler; Mike Hasselbach), 6:07.67.
 6, United States (Marc Schneider, Everett, Wash.; Greg Ruckman, Cincinnati; Paul Teti, Upper Darby, Pa.; Thomas Auth, Maplewood, N.J.), 6:10.09.
 Quadruple Sculls
 Final
 1, Italy (Agostino Abbagnale; Alessio Sartori; Rossano Galtarossa; Simone Raineri), 5:45.56.
 2, Netherlands (Jochem Verberne; Dirk Lippits; Diederik Simon; Michiel Bartman), 5:47.91.
 3, Germany (Marco Geisler; Andreas Hajek; Stephan Volkert; Andre Willms), 5:48.64.
 4, Australia (Peter Hardcastle; Jason Day; Stuart Reside; Duncan Free), 5:50.32.
 5, Switzerland (Simon Stuerm; Christian Stofer; Michael Erdlen; Andre Vonarburg), 5:54.88.
 6, Ukraine (Oleksandr Marchenko; Oleg Lykov; Olexandr Zaskal'ko; Leonid Shaposhnykov), 5:55.12.
 Eight With Coxswain
 Final
 1, Britain (Andrew Lindsay; Ben Hunt-Davis; Simon Dennis; Louis Attrill; Luka Grubor; Kieran West; Fred Scarlett; Steve Trapmore; Rowley Douglas), 5:33.08.
 2, Australia (Christian Ryan; Alastair Gordon; Nick Porzig; Robert Jahrling; Mike McKay; Stuart Welch; Daniel Burke; Jaime Fernandez; Brett Hayman), 5:33.88.
 3, Croatia (Igor Francetic; Tihomir Frankovic; Tomislav Smoljanovic; Niksa Skelin; Sinisa Skelin; Kresimir Culjak; Igor Boraska; Branimir Vujevic; Silvijo Petrisko), 5:34.85.
 4, Italy (Gioacchino Cascone; Franco Berra; Mario Palmisano; Marco Penna; Valerio Pinton; Raffaello Leonardo; Alessandro Corona; Luca Ghezzi; Gaetano Iannuzzi), 5:35.37.
 5, United States (Bryan Volpenhein, Cincinnati; Bob Kaehler, Holland, Pa.; Porter Collins, Darien, Conn.; Tom Welsh, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.; Dave Simon, West Bloomfield, Mich.; Christian Ahrens, Milwaukee; Garrett Miller, Philadelphia; Jeffrey Klepacki, Kearney, N.J.; Pete Cipollone, Ardmore, Pa.), 5:39.16.
 6, Romania (Costel Pavel Mutescu; Vasile Ionel Mastacan; Cristinel Cornel Nemtoc; Florian Tudor; Viorel Talapan; Andrei Nicolae Banica; Gheorghe Pirvan; Dorin Alupei; Dumitru Raducanu), 5:43.89.

 Women
 Lightweight Double Sculls
 Final
 1, Romania (Constanta Burcica; Angela Alupei), 7:02.64.
 2, Germany (Valerie Viehoff; Claudia Blasberg), 7:02.95.
 3, United States (Christine Collins, Darien, Conn.; Sarah Garner, Madison, Wis.), 7:06.37.
 4, Australia (Sally Newmarch; Virginia Lee), 7:12.04.
 5, Switzerland (Kim Plugge; Pia Vogel), 7:15.57.
 6, Netherlands (Kirsten van der Kolk; Marit van Eupen), 7:17.89.
 Quadruple Sculls
 Final
 1, Germany (Manja Kowalski; Meike Evers; Manuela Lutze; Kerstin Kowalski), 6:19.58.
 2, Britain (Guin Batten; Gillian Lindsay; Katherine Grainger; Miriam Batten), 6:21.64.
 3, Russia (Oxana Dorodnova; Irina Fedotova; Ioulia Levina; Larisa Merk), 6:21.65.
 4, Ukraine (Dina Myftakhutdinova; Tetyana Ustyuzhanina; Svitlana Mazii; Olena Ronzhyna), 6:25.71.
 5, United States (Hilary Gehman, Wolfeboro, N.H.; Jennifer Dore-Terhaar, Kearney, N.J.; Laurel Korholz, Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.; Kelly Salchow, Cincinnati), 6:30.26.
 6, Denmark (Bianca Carstensen; Katrin Gleie; Sarah Lauritzen; Dorthe Friis Pedersen), 6:31.30.
 Eight With Coxswain
 Final
 1, Romania (Georgeta Damian; Viorica Susanu; Ioana Olteanu; Veronica Cochela; Maria Magdalena Dumitrache; Elisabeta Lipa; Liliana Gafencu; Doina Ignat; Elena Georgescu), 6:06.44.
 2, Netherlands (Anneke Venema; Carin Beek ter; Nelleke Penninx; Pieta van Dishoeck; Eeke van Nes; Tessa Appeldoorn; Marieke Westerhof; Elien Meijer; Martijntje Quik), 6:09.39.
 3, Canada (Heather McDermid; Heather Davis; Dorota Urbaniak; Theresa Luke; Emma Robinson; Alison Korn; Laryssa Biesenthal; Buffy Alexander; Lesley Thompson), 6:11.58.
 4, Belarus (Irina Bazilevskaya; Marina Kuzmar; Olga Berezneva; Marina Znak; Yulia Bichik; Inessa Zakharevskaya; Natalya Gelakh; Olga Tratsevskaya; Valentina Khokhlova), 6:13.57.
 5, Australia (Victoria Roberts; Alison Davies; Jodi Winter; Bronwyn Thompson; Rachael Kininmonth; Kristina Larsen; Emily Martin; Jane Robinson; Katie Foulkes), 6:15.16.
 6, United States (Katie Maloney, Seattle; Linda Miller, Alexandria, Va.; Amy Martin, Kent, Ore.; Betsy McCagg, Kirkland, Wash.; Torrey Folk, Columbia, Mo.; Amy Fuller, Thousand Oaks, Calif.; Sarah Jones, Starwood, Wash.; Lianne Nelson, Seattle; Raj Shah, North Greenbush, N.Y.), 6:16.87.