Goodale, Logan earn gold in women’s eight Allen’s rowing team settles for bronze

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Three Maine rowers earned Olympic medals Sunday as the U.S. women’s eight won the gold for the first time since 1984 and the men’s eight finished third during the final day of competition at the Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park.

Anna Goodale of Camden and Elle Logan of Boothbay Harbor were members of the gold-medal-winning women’s eight that led its race from start to finish.

The Americans were timed in 6 minutes, 5.34 seconds to defeat runnerup The Netherlands by 1.88 seconds. Romania, the 2004 Olympic champion, placed third in 6:07.25.

Goodale, a 2001 graduate of Camden Hills Regional High School in Rockport and a 2005 graduate of Syracuse University, and Logan, who attends Stanford University, were joined on the victorious U.S. team by coxswain Mary Whipple of Sacramento, Calif., Caryn Davies of Ithaca, N.Y., Caroline Lind of Greensboro, N.C., Susan Francia of Abington, Pa., Anna Cummins of Bellevue, Wash., Lindsay Shoop of Charlottesville, Va., and Erin Cafaro of Modesto, Calif.

Logan was seated just in front of Goodale.

The U.S. crew built a 0.73-second advantage on the field in the first 500 meters and extended its lead to 1.78 seconds over Romania at the midway point of the race. The crew continued to increase its lead in the third 500 before coming home for the victory.

“Obviously, we wanted to be ahead,” Cafaro said. “We got faster every 500 meters, or at least it felt like that to us.”

The finish gave the United States its first gold medal in the event since Los Angeles.

“Before we left [training camp at] Princeton [University], we gathered and watched that 1984 race,” Whipple said. “I made the call halfway through the race saying that it was just like 1984 and that we couldn’t let them down. Then we just motored ahead.”

The victory avenged a second-place finish for the U.S. squad in the 2004 Summer Games. Goodale, 25, and Logan, 20, were not on that team.

“We learned a lot from Athens,” said Whipple. “I think the group from ’04 built a foundation for this team, and these girls have stepped it up. It’s taken about 13 or 14 girls to build this eight.”

Wyatt Allen of Portland was part of the men’s eight that was seeking its second straight gold medal but settled for the bronze behind first-place Canada and second-place Great Britain.

“I’m really happy,” said U.S. team member Bryan Volpenhein of Cincinnati, Ohio. “I was really excited to get out there today. I’m not disappointed with bronze. It’s always good to come away with a medal.”

Competing with Allen and Volbenhein on the U.S. team were coxswain Marcus McElhenney of Lansdowne, Pa., Josh Inman of Hillsboro, Ore., Steven Coppola of Buffalo, N.Y., Dan Walsh of Norwalk, Conn., Micah Boyd and Matt Schnobrich of St. Paul, Minn., and Beau Hoopman of Plymouth, Wis.

The U.S. crew got off the start line in sixth place, then moved into fourth at the 1,000-meter mark before taking third position from The Netherlands during the third quarter of the race. The U.S. continued to gain on the second-place British crew but fell just short at the line, traling the British by 0.23 seconds.

Canada led the race from start to finish, winning with a time of 5:23.89. Great Britain took second in a 5:25.11, followed by the U.S. in a 5:25.34.

“It’s been pretty incredible,” Walsh said. “We had a rough heat, but we came together as a team, and that’s the Olympic spirit. You persevere and you end up on the podium.”

The gold medal-winning Canadian team had its own Maine connection in Andrew Byrnes, a 2005 graduate of Bates College in Lewiston.

Byrnes, a second-year member of the Canadian men’s eight from Toronto, Ont., became the first former Bates athlete to win an Olympic medal.

In track and field Anna Willard, a native of the western Maine town of Greenwood now living in Ann Arbor, Mich., placed 10th in the inaugural Olympic women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase Sunday.

Russian Gulnara Galkina-Samitova set a world record in winning the event, becoming the first woman to finish the race in nine minutes with a time of 8:58.81.

Jenny Barringer of Boulder, Colo., a student at the University of Colorado, set a new American record with a time of 9:22.26 to finish ninth.

She ran a stride ahead of Willard for most of the race before pulling away to edge Willard by more than three seconds. Willard was timed in 9:25.63.

“I felt good,” said Willard. “I had trouble closing the gap between the girl in front of me. I had a pretty good kick that last lap. I just couldn’t turn to the next gear. I’m disappointed, but all in all it has been a good season.”

And late Friday evening, Farmington native Kevin Eastler finished 43rd in a of field of 51 in the men’s 20-kilometer race walk in a time of 1 hour, 28 minutes and 44 seconds.

Eastler, who placed 21st in the same event at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, had hoped for a top-20 finish in his final competitive race before retiring, but injuries that slowed his training throughout the past year continued to nag him in the aftermath of his victory in the U.S. Olympic Trials in July.

“It was a tough race, it’s been a tough season,” said Eastler, a 1995 graduate of Mt. Blue High School and Air Force captain who now lives with his family in Aurora, Colo. “I had some injury issues after the Trials. I had sport hernia surgery in December and some knee injuries. I trained and raced through them the best I could.

“This was my last race, I’ve been doing this a long time. Nine years in the Air Force. I couldn’t have done any of this without them.”

Valeriy Borchin of Russia won the gold medal with a time of 1:19.01. Jefferson Perez of Ecuador took silver in 1:19.15 and Australian Jared Tallent captured the bronze in 1:19.42.

Eastler was the only American in the race.