AP Photo/Rick Rycroft

Commonwealth Games: Team Canada wins 14 medals on Day 4

April 8, 2018

The medal haul continued for Team Canada on Day 4 at the XXI Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia.

Fourteen more medals were won (two gold, eight silver, four bronze), highlighted by three double podiums, a couple of Games records, and one athlete adding to her Games-leading total.

Here are the details from Down Under:

Swimming

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Team Canada earned two double podiums at the pool. Kylie Masse won her second gold medal of the Games, adding a victory in the 200m backstroke to the one she had already earned in the 100m backstroke. She touched the wall in a Games-record time of 2:05.98, edging out teammate Taylor Ruck for the top step of the podium by almost half a second. The silver is Ruck’s sixth medal of the Games, the most won by any athlete so far in Gold Coast. Reigning world champion Emily Seebohm of Australia took the bronze.

Women’s 200m individual medley gold medalist England’s Siobhan Marie O’Connor, centre, stands with silver medalist Canada’s Sarah Darcel, left, and bronze medalist Canada’s Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson, right on the podium at the Aquatic Centre during the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, Australia, Sunday, April 8, 2018. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

In the women’s 200m individual medley, it was Sarah Darcel and Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson sharing the podium, winning silver and bronze, respectively. England’s Siobhan Marie O’Connor captured the gold in 2:09.80, while Darcel finished in 2:11.14 with Seltenreich-Hodgson six-tenths of a second back.

Para-swimmer Philippe Vachon added a bronze medal in the men’s SM8 200m individual medley.

Artistic Gymnastics

Team Canada gymnasts reached the podium in all five events contested on the first day of the individual apparatus finals, bringing home six medals.

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Shallon Olsen and Ellie Black topped the field in women’s vault. Olsen averaged 14.566 points from her two vaults to win the gold medal ahead of Black, who scored 14.233 points for the silver. Olsen proved herself to be a world-class competitor in this event by qualifying for the final in her Olympic debut at Rio 2016.

“It was absolutely fantastic today. The crowd was so uplifting and so supportive and I’m so thankful for this opportunity, It’s just great being out there representing Canada,” said Olsen, who still has the floor exercise final to come.

Silver medalist Ellie Black of Canada, left, and Gold medalist Shallon Olsen of Canada, pose for photographs after the vault event of the artistic gymnastics women’s apparatus final at Coomera Indoor Stadium during the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, Australia, Sunday, April 8, 2018. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Scott Morgan won a pair of medals, first capturing silver on floor exercise followed by a bronze on rings. Morgan had been a medallist in both of those events at the last Commonwealth Games at Glasgow 2014.

The veteran leader of the women’s team, Brittany Rogers won silver on the uneven bars, while Zachary Clay captured a bronze on pommel horse.

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“I feel like I want to cry, I’m so happy. These Games are everything I could have dreamed of,” said Rogers, a two-time Olympian who made her international debut in 2006 . “I was standing on the podium, watching the flag raise, and I don’t know how many more opportunities I’m going to get – seeing my flag above me. It was a very humbling moment. I took so many deep breaths and just took a picture of the moment and tried to soak it all in. I’ve worked so hard for this and it’s something that could very well be the swan song I’ve been looking for.”

Athletics

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On the first day of athletics competition in Gold Coast, Mohammed Ahmed put Canada on the medal table with a silver in the 5000m, finishing in 13:52.78. He just under two seconds behind gold medallist Joshua Kiprui Cheptegei of Uganda while Kenya’s Edward Pingua Zakayo was 1.28 seconds back of Ahmed for the bronze.

Weightlifting

There were a couple of silver medals won by Canadian weightlifters on Sunday. Marie-Eve Beauchemin-Nadeau lifted a total of 221kg (snatch 95kg, clean and jerk 126kg) to finish second in the women’s 75kg weight class to England’s Emily Godley by just one kilogram.

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The same margin separated gold and silver in the men’s 94kg category as Boady Santavy finished second to Steven Kari of Papua New Guinea. Santavy had broken the Commonwealth Games record in the snatch, lifting 168kg, but Kari set his own Games record with 216kg in the clean and jerk to out-total the Canadian with 370kg.