Gold is always the goal, but a silver medal for Duncan’s James Dunaway and the Canadian men’s eight crew brought the World Rowing Championships in Poznan, Poland to a satisfying conclusion.

Powerful Germany won the race in 5:24.13, with the Canadians clocking 5:27.15 for second and a slight cushion over the third-place Netherlands crew that finished in 5:28.32.

“They were pretty pleased,’’ Dunaway’s mother Felicity said of the result. “They were hoping to do better, but Germany’s pretty strong.’’

James Dunaway confirmed in an email from Poland that the crew went into the race with the mindset it could win.

“We are satisfied with the silver and will use it as motivation to train that much harder this winter,’’ he noted.

“It’s a great stepping stone for us and puts us in a very good position to start the quadrennial as we build towards London in 2012.’’

Dunaway indicated a strong cross tailwind at the Malta Lake course made conditions fast.

“We knew that if we could get out fast in front we would have a shot at winning,’’ he pointed out.

“We went with the Gemans and held them much better than we did when we raced them in Lucerne at the World Cup in July. Unfortunately, we could not match their pace in the third 500 (metres) and had to settle for silver.’’

Considering the time the crew has been together, Dunaway thought that made the result even more significant.

“We only started rowing the eight a couple of weeks before the World Cup in July so to be able to come together that quickly and win a silver medal at the World Championships is a great feeling.’’

“It was nice to get a silver medal in the eight,’’ noted coach Mike Spracklen in a release. “If you asked me three months ago, I would have not predicted that would happen.’’

Dunaway will now be enjoying a well-deserved week in Cuba before resuming training.