A day after the men's four took silver in rowing, Canada's remaining crews had a disappointing day Sunday, with both the world champion men's eight and men's lightweight four finishing fifth in their final races.

"It obviously wasn't a good day at the office," said head coach Brian Richardson.

In the men's eight, the Canadian crew struggled to finish almost 10 seconds behind the winning American crew.

Winnipeg's Jeff Powell, the stroke of the crew, had injured his shoulder muscle in a race last week and was being treated by medical staff to prepare for the race.

Ben Rutledge of Cranbrook, B.C., also had problems with his seat in the final 500 metres, which prevented him from using his legs properly to row.

Powell, Rutlelge, Scott Frandsen of Kelowna, B.C., Kevin Light of Sidney, B.C., Ben Rutledge of Cranbrook, B.C., Kyle Hamilton of Richmond, B.C., Adam Kreek of London, Ont., Andrew Hoskins of Edmonton, Joe Stankevicius of Dundas, Ont., and Brian Price of Belleville, Ont., fell further and further behind as the American crew took the prestige event for the first time in 40 years.

"We came out of the start really strong and I saw the Americans start to go and tried to go with them," said coxswain Price. "It was obviously a really huge push that they put in there and we didn't answer it as well as we could have."

"It's one of those races you've gone over a 100 times in your mind and when it happens you think you're dreaming."

The Netherlands sprinted to silver, with Australia taking bronze. Germany, a team that finished sixth in Canada's 2003 world championship win, crossed the line ahead of the Canadians.

Tight field in lightweight four

In the men's lightweight fours final, Iain Brambell of Brentwood, B.C., Jonathan Mandick and Gavin Hassett of Victoria and Jon Beare of Toronto finished almost four seconds behind the victorious Danish crew.

Australia took silver, with Italy sneaking out a photo finish bronze over the Netherlands.

"It's a little bit heartbreaking to finish fifth," said Hassett. "But there's nothing more we could have done today."

"There was no lack of effort in the boat," Beare said. "We just came up short."

After a nightmare games in Sydney, in which they suffered through illness and injury, the Danes came back to take gold.

"It was a star-studded field," Brambell said after the race. "Those (Danes) stepped up really, really well."

The results weigh heavily on a Canadian rowing team expected to reach the podium as Canadian athletes find themselves struggling in other sports.

"I'm extremely disappointed," said Richardson. "We did come here with expectations of up to four medals."

With files from The Canadian Press