Canada qualifies men's quadruple sculls for Rio

In their final chance, the Canadian men's rowing team qualified for the Rio Olympic Games Tuesday in the quadruple sculls in Lucerne, Switzerland, filling out what will be a seven-boatteam.

The team finishedsecond at the FISA Final Olympic Qualification Regatta to qualify for the Games,rounding out the 10-team competition. It was the final opportunity for teams to qualify for the Games.

The team of Julien Bahain, Will Dean, Pascal Lussier and Rob Gibson rowed to a five-minute 42.88-second finish, narrowly behind Russia, who finished 5:42.13, also qualifying for the Games.

"We spend a lot of time trying to just focus on the process of what we're doing and not the result," said Dean after qualifying. "And it's not until after it's over that you realize what you've done. It's been a short year and a long year, in the sense of the pressure. But going into this regatta, I've never felt more support from the Canadian rowing community. Everyone was in our corner and everyone had our backs"

Canadaand Russiawill compete in August against Germany, Australia, Estonia, Great Britain, Switzerland, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine, whoall qualified at the 2015 World Rowing Championships last September.

The athletes who rowed for Canada Tuesday will not necessarilybe those in the boat during the Games. Rowing Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committeewill announce the fullteam listJune 28 in Toronto.

Canada qualified the other six boats which will race in the Olympics in September at the world championships. The men's quadruple sculls competed there but missed qualifying, finishing fifth in the 'B' final. Canada also qualified one boat to race in the ParalympicGames.

The men's sculls will continue their competition schedule this weekend atWorld Rowing Cup II, also in Lucerne. It will be the team's final competition before the Games.