Canadian Roundup: World title and Olympic dreams
From a world championship title in curling to 27 swimmers reaching their Rio 2016 dreams, Canadians had a lot to be proud of this past weekend.
Including international success on home soil in table tennis and diving.
Swimming
Read: Team Canada swimmers selected for Rio 2016
The pool swimmers named to Team Canada for Rio 2016 gathered for the team announcement on April 10, 2016.
After six days of fierce competition at the Olympic swimming trials, 27 standouts were selected to wear the maple leaf at the Games this summer. The competition concluded with Ryan Cochrane qualifying for his third Olympic Games, followed by Penny Oleksiak and Santo Condorelli winning the women’s and men’s awards for swimmer of the meet.
Table Tennis
Read: Zhang and Wang lock up Olympic table tennis berths
At the Rio 2016 North American Olympic qualifier (Photo: Table Tennis Canada).
Two table tennis players qualified for Rio 2016 at the North American Olympic Qualification Tournament in Markham over the weekend. Mo Zhang will continue her Olympic streak by going to her her third Games in women’s singles. Eugene Wang will compete in his second Olympics, after qualifying in men’s singles.
Curling
Read: Koe skips Canada to curling world title in Switzerland
Canada Curling won its first world championship title since 2012, after Kevin Koe guided his team of Brent Laing, Marc Kennedy and Ben Hebert to a 5-3 victory over Denmark, on Sunday in Basel, Switzerland. At the end of the day Canada not only struck gold, but brought home the big cheese, as Le Gruyère was awarded to winners.
Diving
Read: Canadian divers score eight medals at home
Meaghan Benfeito and Roseline Filion after winning the women’s 10 synchro competition at the FINA Diving Grand Prix in Gatineau on April 9. (Greg Kolz)
Gatineau hosted divers from around the world from the fourth stop on on the FINA Diving Grand Prix circuit. Canada’s team did not disappoint home fans, winning eight medals, including five gold by Roseline Filion, Meaghan Benfeito, Vincent Riendeau, Philippe Gagne and Francois Imbeau-Dulac.
Rugby
Read: Landry reaches career milestone at Atlanta Sevens
Ghislaine Landry breaks away from a tackle at Atlanta 7s (Photo: Mike Lee @ KLC Fotos).
Ghislaine Landry reached her 500th career point, as she led the Canadian team to a fourth place finish at Atlanta Sevens on Saturday. Landry’s impressive showing not only helped Canada go undefeated on day one, but landed her a spot on the tournament’s all-star team.
Cycling – BMX
Read: Nyhaug wins second BMX World Cup time trial
Tory Nyhaug won his second straight BMX World Cup time trial in Manchester on Saturday. The Canadian raced to a time of 28.830 seconds, to finish ahead of Corben Sharrah from the USA (28.88s) and Netherlands’ Niek Kimmann (28.904s).
Athletics
Alysha Newman set a new Canadian record in women’s pole vault after soaring to a height of 4.60m. Sage Watson became the world leader in women’s 400m hurdles, after racing to a time of 55.45 seconds. In throwing events, Heather Steacy and Taryn Suttie secured Olympic standards in hammer throw (72.09m) and shot put (17.88m) respectively.
Men’s water polo
Read: Men’s water polo, one shot away from Rio 2016
Canada plays to a victory against Hungary at the men’s Olympic Qualification tournament in Trieste. (Photo: Claudio Micali)
Water polo Canada suffered a heart breaking quarterfinal loss, at the men’s Olympic qualifying tournament on Friday Trieste. The Canadians who were undefeated headed into the Rio 2016 deciding match, fell 7-8 to Spain.
