Weekend Roundup: Michael Woods King of Mountain for a day at Tour de France
With under two weeks until Tokyo 2020, it was a busy weekend for Team Canada athletes, many squeezing in some final competitions in the last phase of their Olympic preparations.
Michael Woods was in polka dots after moving to the top of the climber classification at the Tour de France. Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes reached the podium at the FIVB World Tour in Switzerland. Keep reading to catch up on the details you may have missed.
Diamond League medals x2 💎
READ: Diamond League: Lovett wins silver, Arop claims bronze in Monaco
At the Diamond League stop in Monaco on Friday, Django Lovett was the top Canadian finisher with his silver in the high jump event, clearing the bar at 2.29m. In the men’s 800m, Marco Arop took the bronze medal with a personal best time of 1:43.26 seconds — just 0.06 off the Canadian record.
Also in competition was thee-time Olympic medallist Andre De Grasse, who finished just off the podium in fourth place in the 100m, running 10 seconds flat. Finally, in the javelin, Liz Gleadle finished in fifth place with a throw of 58.40m.
Ready, set, spike, then off to Tokyo ✈️
READ: Pavan and Humana-Paredes win bronze on FIVB World Tour in Gstaad
Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes leave their final event before Tokyo 2020 with hard-fought bronze medals from the FIVB World Tour 4 Star event in Gstaad, Switzerland. On Sunday, the Canadians defeated Latvia 2-1 (21-13, 13-21, 17-15) to secure their spot on the podium after dropping their semifinal match, 2-0 against Brazilian duo Agatha Bednarczuk and Eduarda Santos “Duda” Lisboa.
The Canadians had opened the event on Wednesday with a two-set loss to Spanish qualifiers Daniela Alvarez and Angela Lobato. They overcame a 21-13 first-set loss against Katja Stam and Raisa Schoon of the Netherlands on Thursday to prevail 2-1 and start a run of eight consecutive set victories that ended in a 2-0 sweep of Carolina Salgado and Barbara Seixas in Saturday’s quarterfinals. Pavan and Humana-Paredes head to Tokyo as the second-ranked team in the world behind only Agatha and Duda.
Serving into history 🎾
History was made at Wimbledon as two Canadian men, Félix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov, moved into the quarterfinals at Wimbledon for the first time ever in the Open era.
On Friday, Shapovalov went up against the top seed Novak Djokovic in a semifinal battle, the first Grand Slam semi of Shapovalov’s career. Djokovic edged the 22-year-old Canadian, 7-6 (3), 7-5, 7-5 at the All England Club to move onto his seventh final at the grass-court Grand Slam.
READ: Six Team Canada tennis stars ready to serve at Tokyo 2020
King 👑 of the mountains 🚵♂️
On Saturday, Michael Woods became the King of the Mountains after 14 stages of the Tour de France. The Ottawa native survived a crash on the descent to climb his way back to the front group and claimed the polka dot jersey with the most points in the mountain classification. Woods finished fifth in the 183.7-kilometre stage. After Sunday’s 15th stage, Woods dropped to second in the climber classification and sits 25th in the general classification for the yellow jersey.
Konnichiwa, Japan 🇯🇵
Many Team Canada athletes have started to arrive in Japan, with several sports like soccer, rowing and softball having training camps outside of Tokyo.
Other sports, like swimming opted to hold training camps in Canada before heading to Tokyo.
