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Olympic Roundup: Canada’s Maude Charron wins gold in weightlifting – Sportsnet.ca

Published

3 years ago

July 27, 2021

Canadian women continued their winning ways at the Tokyo Olympics on Tuesday as Maude Charron’s weightlifting gold capped off a four-medal day for Canada’s athletes.

Charron, from Rimouski, Que., finished first in the women’s 64-kilogram competition after a successful lift of 131 kilograms on her third and final clean and jerk attempt.

Charron also had the highest score in the snatch phase, lifting 105 kilograms. Her total of 236 points over the two phases was four better than silver medallist Giorgia Bordignon of Italy. Wen-Huei Chen of Taiwan finished third.

The 28-year-old lifted her hands in triumph as she climbed the podium and appeared to wipe away tears as the Canadian anthem played.

“Actually I don’t remember,” Charron said with a laugh when asked about the anthem. “I was just crying, and I didn’t realize what happened.

“I thought about my grandmother because once she told me she’d like me to sing the Canadian anthem, so I sang it – but on the podium at the Olympics.”

Charron’s gold is Canada’s second of the games after swimmer Maggie Mac Neil won the women’s 100-metre butterfly on Monday.

Currently, all eight of Canada’s medals at the Tokyo Olympics have been won by women. Women athletes also led Canada’s medal charge four years ago in Rio de Janeiro, accounting for 16 of Canada’s 22 medals.

Swimmer Kylie Masse kicked off the country’s medal run on Tuesday as she added an Olympic silver medal in the 100-metre backstroke to the country’s growing pool tally. Her silver medal was followed up with bronze-medal victories from the softball team and by judoka Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard.

The softball team’s 3-2 defeat over Mexico marked the country’s first medal in the sport, which was dropped from the Games along with baseball in 2012 and 2016.

Montreal’s Beauchemin-Pinard, meanwhile, earned Canada’s second judo medal of the games after she defeated Anriqueli Barrios of Venezuela by waza-ari in extra time to win a bronze in the women’s under-63-kilogram competition.

With two gold, three silver and three bronze after four full days of competition, Canadas moved up to eighth in the medal standings, behind Australia and ahead of France. Canada was ninth in total medals, with one less than Australia and one more than France.

Host Japan led the medal table for a second straight day with 10 gold, one more than the United States and China. The U.S. led all countries with 25 total medals, overtaking China, which had 21 after Tuesday’s competition.

It was Charron who provided Tuesday’s golden moment. The weightlifter, who had once gone to circus school and dreamed of being a gymnast, said going into the Games that her goal was to give her best performance.

However, she had already established herself as a medal contender earlier this year when she won gold at the Pan American Championships in April, breaking three records on her way.

And her recent success came without having a gym to train at due to COVID-19.

“My gym in Quebec closed so I had to take my stuff — my bar and my plates — to my dad’s garage,” she said. “I trained there for a whole year along with my dog.

“It was fine, I just picture myself there in my peaceful place and it puts me in the right mood.”

Canada’s swim team — at least its women — appeared to be continuing the success they found in the pool at the last Games in 2016, despite a COVID-19 pandemic that upended training schedules and, at times, shut pools altogether.

When the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic shut down all pools for weeks in the spring of 2020, Masse got into a harness and tethered herself to a fence so she could swim in place in her parents’ backyard pool.

Masse was forced to relocate from her home pool at the University of Toronto, where she trains under coaches Linda Kiefer and Byron MacDonald, to Toronto’s Pan Am Sports Centre last year to join a training group overseen by Ben Titley.

On Tuesday, the 25-year-old from LaSalle, Ont. led at the halfway turn with the fastest first length of her life but was caught by speeding Australian swimmer Kaylee McKeown at the wall.

Despite the difficulties she faced in the past year, Masse wasn’t making any excuses after her second-place finish.

“Everyone’s faced challenges this year,” she said. “Some more than others. I don’t want to ever use that as an excuse. I did everything I possibly could.”

McKeown’s winning time was two hundredths of a second off her world record of 57.47 seconds. Masse’s 57.72 was two hundredths back of her career-best in June’s Olympic trials.

While she said it would have been “incredible” to win gold, she was happy to grab the silver.

“I went the second-fastest time that I’ve ever gone, and I have to be happy with that,” said Masse, who tied for Olympic bronze with China’s Fu Yuanhui in Rio in 2016. “I’m proud of that in an Olympic final.”

Canada’s softball medal came 13 years after the program’s agonizing fourth-place showing at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The Canadians bounced back after a disappointing 1-0 extra-inning loss to Japan on Sunday that dashed their hopes for gold.

Four veterans from that team arrived at these Games looking for redemption — Jenn Salling, Danielle Lawrie, Lauren Regula and Kaleigh Rafter.

“It means everything,” said the 34-year-old Salling, who also announced she will retire. “This is the best team and one of the best cultures I’ve ever been a part of. Personally, this is the best gift I could have ever received.”

Canadian chef de mission Marnie McBean, on the 25th anniversary of her own rowing triple gold, made up the country’s cheering section, sitting directly behind home plate with two flags and a drum.

It was also a day of redemption for Beauchemin-Pinard, whose success came after she missed the podium in her first Olympic appearance in 2016.

She said after her victory that the defeat in Rio had made her even more determined to succeed in Tokyo.

“I knew I was capable of getting a medal today,” she said after her win.

Beauchemin-Pinard won her first three matches by ippon before losing in the semifinals by waza-ari to five-time world champion Clarisse Agbegnenou of France, who went on to win gold.

In her bronze-medal match, Beauchemin-Pinard remained focused. She forced Barrios on her back just three minutes into the sudden-death period, before pumping her fist and yelling in triumph from the mat after the winning attack.

Also on Tuesday, Toronto’s Penny Oleksiak and Sydney Pickrem of Clearwater, Fla., qualified for the 200-metre freestyle and 200-metre individual medley finals, respectively.

Toronto’s Summer McIntosh, the youngest athlete on Canada’s Olympic team at 14, placed ninth in the 200-metre freestyle semifinal to finish just outside the top eight advancing.

Divers Meaghan Benfeito and Caeli McKay just missed the podium in the 10-metre synchronized event, finishing fourth.

Canada’s women’s soccer team finished its preliminary play with a 1-1 draw with Britain. Canada will next face Brazil in the quarterfinals on Friday.

And Catharine Pendrel finished with an 18th place finish in the women’s mountain bike in her fourth and final Olympics.

The 40-year-old — and new mom — from Fredericton, N.B., finished eight minutes and one second behind gold medallist Jolanda Neff of Switzerland.

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NHL roundup: Hurricanes beat Flyers 6-4 for seventh straight win

Published

2 hours ago

November 6, 2024

Anne Joseph

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Martin Necas scored a go-ahead goal with 29 seconds left and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Philadelphia Flyers 6-4 on Tuesday night.

It was the seventh straight win for the Hurricanes, who also got goals from Jack Roslovic, Jordan Martinook, Eric Robinson and Jackson Blake. Seth Jarvis added an empty-net goal in the final seconds.

Necas typically saves his game-winners for overtime, with nine in his career, but he was able to take care of business in regulation with his team-best seventh goal of the season.

Travis Konecny scored two goals and had two assists for the Flyers. Morgan Frost and Owen Tippett also scored for Philadelphia.

Aleksei Kolosov made 28 saves for the Flyers, who trailed 2-1, 3-1 and 4-3 but kept coming back. Carolina’s Pyotr Kochetkov struggled in net allowing four goals on just 16 shots.

Elsewhere in the NHL on Tuesday:

—

SABRES 5 SENATORS 1

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Bowen Byram and Tage Thompson scored 16 seconds apart to open the third period, and Buffalo snapped a three-game skid with a win over Ottawa.

Byram scored twice, JJ Peterka had two goals and an assist and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 37 saves.

Ridly Greig converted his own rebound in cutting Buffalo’s lead to 2-1 with 7:31 left in the second period. Linus Ullmark made 29 saves in dropping to 1-4 in his past five starts.

Buffalo went up 3-1 on Byram’s second goal 21 seconds into the third period. The defenceman’s shot from inside the blue line sneaked through Ullmark, with the puck rolling down the goalie’s pad, dropping into the crease and trickling across the line. Thompson scored when he crashed the net, was knocked over by defender Jake Sanderson and was lying in the crease when Alex Tuch’s shot went in off his shoulder.

—

MAPLE LEAFS 4 BRUINS 0

TORONTO (AP) — Anthony Stolarz made 29 saves for his first shutout of the season in Toronto’s 4-0 victory over Boston.

Morgan Rielly had a goal and two assists as Toronto connected three times on the power play. William Nylander and Matthew Knies added a goal and an assist each. Mitch Marner had two assists of his own. Steven Lorentz rounded out the scoring into the empty net.

The Leafs played without captain Auston Matthews, who is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury.

Jeremy Swayman made 23 stops for Boston, which was coming off consecutive weekend shutouts of the Philadelphia Flyers and Seattle Kraken.

Toronto’s porous 31st-ranked power play scored for the second time in as many games at 8:44 of the second period when Rielly fired through a screen. Nylander banked in his team-leading 10th goal of the season on another man advantage 1:14 later for a 2-0 lead.

The Bruins entered the game 8-0-0 in the regular season against their Atlantic Division rival dating back to Jan. 14, 2023.

—

FLAMES 3 CANADIENS 2 (OT)

MONTREAL (AP) — Matt Coronato scored twice as Calgary came back to defeat Montreal in overtime.

Coronato tied the game with 2:46 remaining in regulation when he cruised into the slot and went off the post and in. He then buried the winning goal seven seconds into the extra period.

Connor Zary also scored for Calgary, which won its second game in seven outings. Dustin Wolf stopped 21 shots.

Joel Armia — with a short-handed goal — and Brendan Gallagher scored for Montreal (4-7-2). Armia also provided an assist, while Sam Montembeault made 32 saves as the Canadiens’ losing streak extended to four games.

Zary opened the scoring with his third 4:20 into the second period when he pounced on a loose puck in the slot and fired a shot past Montembeault.

Gallagher then slipped the puck between Wolf’s pads at 16:23 to level the score with his fifth of the season.

—

BLUES 3 LIGHTNING 2

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Jordan Kyrou, Alexey Toropchenko and Oskar Sundqvist scored to help St. Louis beat Tampa Bay 3-2.

Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington made 21 saves for his 149th career win moving him past Jake Allen for second place in franchise history, just two wins behind Mike Liut’s 151.

Nick Perbix and Victor Hedman scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 20 saves for the Lightning who have lost three straight games.

Kyrou scored his fourth goal of the season 8:51 into the third period to give St. Louis a 3-1 lead.

Toropchenko scored his first goal of the season with 1:35 remaining in the second period to put St. Louis ahead 2-1 after Sundqvist tied the game with his first of the season 7:47 into the period.

—

ISLANDERS 4 PENGUINS 3 (SO)

NEW YORK (AP) — Bo Horvat scored the only goal in a shootout and New York rallied past Pittsburgh 4-3.

New York goalie Ilya Sorokin denied Rickard Rakell, Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang in the shootout and finished with 32 saves. Kyle Palmieri had a goal and an assist for the Islanders, who trailed 3-1 midway through the third period.

Simon Holmstrom and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored in the third for New York. Horvat had two assists.

Evgeni Malkin had a goal and an assist to lead Pittsburgh. Crosby got his 598th career goal, and Michael Bunting also scored. Rakell added two assists.

Alex Nedeljkovich stopped 23 shots for the Penguins, who have lost seven of nine. They won their previous two following a six-game skid.

—

KINGS 5 WILD 1

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Trevor Lewis scored twice, Kevin Fiala added another on the power play and Los Angeles beat Minnesota 5-1.

Warren Foegele and Quinton Byfield also scored for Los Angeles, which was playing the second night of a back-to-back after a 3-0 win in Nashville a night earlier. David Rittich made 23 saves for the Kings.

Fiala, who was traded to Los Angeles in 2022 by Minnesota for a first-round pick draft pick and defenceman Brock Faber, scored his seventh goal of the season. He now has three goals and six assists in his last seven games against the Wild.

Minnesota, which had won three in a row, opened the scoring in the second period on Zach Bogosian’s first goal of the season. Goaltender Filip Gustavsson stopped 23 shots for the Wild.

—

JETS 3 UTAH 0

WINNIPEG, Man. (AP) — Nino Niederreiter scored twice in his 900th NHL career game and Connor Hellebuyck made 21 saves to help Winnipeg defeat Utah 3-0.

It was Hellebuyck’s second shutout of the season and 39th of this career.

Gabriel Vilardi also scored for the Jets. Adam Lowry assisted on both goals by Niederreiter.

Utah ended a run of picking up points in three consecutive games (1-0-2).

Karel Vejmelka stopped 25 shots for Utah in its second stop on a four-game road trip.

Jets winger Kyle Connor had his franchise-record, season-opening points streak end at 12 games.

—

AVALANCHE 6 KRAKEN 3

DENVER (AP) — Arturri Lehkonen scored the go-ahead goal on a power play in his season debut and Nathan MacKinnon had five assists as Colorado beat Seattle 6-3.

Mikko Rantanen added two goals for the Avalanche, who snapped a three-game losing streak. Ivan Ivan, Nikolai Kovalenko and Chris Wagner also scored for Colorado.

Cale Makar had two assists but the star defenceman barely played in the second half of the game and appeared to be slowed by an apparent injury during a brief shift.

MacKinnon and Makar extended their season-opening point streaks to 13 games.

Lehkonen played for the first time since off-season shoulder surgery.

Jared McCann, Jaden Schwartz and Brandon Montour scored for the Kraken.

—

CANUCKS 5 DUCKS 1

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Brock Boeser, Danton Heinen and Kiefer Sherwood had a goal and an assist apiece, and Quinn Hughes recorded his 300th career assist in Vancouver’s victory over Anaheim.

Jake DeBrusk and Elias Pettersson also scored and Hughes had three assists for the Canucks, who have won six of eight. Kevin Lankinen made 21 saves in Vancouver’s sixth consecutive win over the Ducks.

Olen Zellweger scored a power-play goal early in the first period for Anaheim, which has lost seven of nine. Lukas Dostal stopped 31 shots.

Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko took shots from teammates again after the morning skate, and he could return to practice this week. The Southern California native and 2023-24 Vezina Trophy finalist hasn’t played this season due to a knee injury incurred late last season.

—

SHARKS 2 BLUE JACKETS 1 (OT)

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Alex Wennberg scored 3:11 into overtime and San Jose celebrated the return of No. 1 overall draft pick Macklin Celebrini with a win over Columbus.

Defenceman Jack Thompson scored his first career goal for the Sharks (4-8-2), who entered the night with the worst record in the NHL. San Jose has won four of five.

Celebrini, the top pick in the 2024 NHL draft, missed 12 games with a hip injury he sustained in the season opener Oct. 10 — an injury first incurred during the pre-season. Celebrini didn’t score and missed a shot early in overtime.

San Jose goalie Vitek Vanacek was fantastic in net, making 49 saves.

Blue Jackets right wing Kirill Marchenko scored for the second consecutive game. Columbus (5-6-1) has lost three straight.

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Canada’s Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Routliffe pick up second win at WTA Finals

Published

1 day ago

November 5, 2024

Anne Joseph

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe remain undefeated in women’s doubles at the WTA Finals.

The 2023 U.S. Open champions, seeded second at the event, secured a 1-6, 7-6 (1), (11-9) super-tiebreak win over fourth-seeded Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in round-robin play on Tuesday.

The season-ending tournament features the WTA Tour’s top eight women’s doubles teams.

Dabrowski and Routliffe lost the first set in 22 minutes but levelled the match by breaking Errani’s serve three times in the second, including at 6-5. They clinched victory with Routliffe saving a match point on her serve and Dabrowski ending Errani’s final serve-and-volley attempt.

Dabrowski and Routliffe will next face fifth-seeded Americans Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk on Thursday, where a win would secure a spot in the semifinals.

The final is scheduled for Saturday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 5, 2024.

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Allen nets shutout as Devils burn Oilers 3-0

Published

1 day ago

November 4, 2024

Anne Joseph

EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.

Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.

The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.

Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.

TAKEAWAYS

Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.

Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.

KEY MOMENT

New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.

KEY RETURN?

Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.

OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN

The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.

The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.

UP NEXT

Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.

Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.

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