PARIS – Alysha Newman had to wait a long time before she was allowed to make her final vault.
Technical difficulties with the apparatus late in the women’s pole vault had the remaining competitors hanging around in warm-up suits while the issue was addressed.
Newman didn’t seem to mind. She already knew she was going to get a medal.
The vaulter from Delaware, Ont., would miss her last attempt at 4.90 metres, but her mark of 4.85 was good for a bronze medal and a Canadian record.
It took her three Games, but Newman finally scored her medal.
“This whole year, I’ve been leading up to this moment. It was so funny because I felt like I missed out in Tokyo, missed out in Rio. I just wasn’t at my best, personally, on and off the track.” she said. “This year I said, I’m going to put it all in one basket. I’m putting all track and field in this basket, and it worked out.”
Newman is the first Canadian woman to win an Olympic pole vault medal. In fact, she’s the first Canadian to medal in well over a century.
William Halpenny won Canada’s last medal in the sport with a bronze at the 1912 Stockholm Games. That followed Edward Archibald’s bronze four years earlier in London.
The rare medal gave Canada 19 overall in Paris — six gold, four silver and nine bronze. The total was good for 10th overall on the medal table.
It was also Canada’s third athletics medal of the Games after Ethan Katzberg and Camryn Rogers swept the hammer throw titles.
Otherwise, it was a frustrating day in track and field, with decorated sprinter Andre De Grasse failing to qualify for the men’s 200-metre final.
The 29-year-old from Markham, Ont., finished third in his Olympic men’s 200-metre semifinal heat at 20.41 seconds Wednesday at Stade de France. He was officially eliminated from Thursday’s final when the third and fourth finishers in the next semifinal posted better times.
Afterward, De Grasse revealed he had a hamstring injury that first surfaced a month ago. He only missed a week of training before re-aggravating it this week.
“It was going be tough today,” De Grasse said. “I warmed up and I kind of didn’t really feel it but I knew I just wanted to try and try and do my best and see what I could come up with.”
De Grasse won gold in the event at the Tokyo Games with a personal best of 19.62 seconds.
The six-time Olympic medallist also missed the 100-metre final on Sunday, the first time in his career that he missed an Olympic final in the 100, 200 or 4×100 relay final.
Another medallist from Tokyo also had a heartbreaking day on the track.
Mo Ahmed was in the top seven with about 400 metres left in his 5,000-metre heat when he tripped over the leg of a runner in front of him and took a fall. A handful of other runners fell not long after.
The 33-year-old from St. Catharines, Ont., who earned silver in the event at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, got up and continued running but finished 16th with a time of 14 minutes 15.76 seconds
“Unfortunately, while running in the pack Moh stood on the ankle of an athlete in front of him, which caused him to fall,” Athletics Canada said in a statement. “We have watched the video several times with the WA (World Athletics) video referee and it was clear that Moh was not impeded or jostled before this happened and so it is considered his responsibility to avoid the athlete in front.”
Ahmed finished fourth in the men’s 10,000-metre final last Friday.
Away from the track at Eiffel Tower Stadium Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson advanced to the women’s beach volleyball semifinals with a 21-18, 21-18 win over Spain’s Daniela Alvarez and Tania Moreno on Wednesday at the Paris Olympics.
The first Canadians to make it to the Olympic women’s final four will play for a chance at gold on Thursday when they face Switzerland’s Tanja Hueberli and Nina Brunner in the semifinals. They will still have a berth in the bronze-medal game with a loss.
Being on the precipice of the podium seemed like a far cry for the pair earlier in the tournament, when they went 1-2 in group play and had to win a “lucky loser” match against a Czech team to advance to the Round of 16.
But they beat second-ranked Americans Taryn Kloth and Kristin Nuss 2-0 in the Round of 16 before defeating Alvarez and Moreno in the first-ever matchup between the teams.
“Every single team is excellent calibre, so every time it’s a difficult game,” Wilkerson said. “We have faced a lot of challenges before getting to this, so we are embracing difficult times and have made something so beautiful out of it.”
Canada’s lone Olympic medal in beach volleyball came in 1996 when the men’s duo of John Child and Mark Heese took bronze in Atlanta.
In track cycling, Lauriane Genest of Levis, Que., and Kelsey Mitchell of Sherwood Park, Alta., advanced to the quarterfinals of the women’s keirin by winning their repechage races.
In sprint canoe, Michelle Russell of Fall River, N.S., and Riley Melanson of Dartmouth, N.S., both qualified for the women’s singles 500-metre semifinals.
Evan Dunfee of Richmond, B.C., and Olivia Lundman of Lantzville, B.C., were 20th as the race walk mixed marathon made its Olympic debut.
The pair finished in a time of three hours four minutes 57 seconds, more than 14 minutes behind gold-medal winner Spain.
However, the Canadians found plenty to celebrate in a race that was a valuable learning experience for the 21-year-old Lundman, who is in her first Olympics.
“It was so cool to watch that, to see all the work we’ve put in to get here,” said Dunfee, 33, acting as coach and mentor as much as teammate. “By far Olivia is the least experienced athlete on that race course, and she showed today how much she deserved to be there.”
In women’s golf, Alena Sharp of Hamilton was the top Canadian after opening at 1 under, six shots back of leader Celine Boutier of France. Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., who finished seventh at the 2016 Rio Games, opened at 2 over.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 7, 2024.
