Canada’s Stellato-Dudek, Deschamps win pairs event at figure skating Grand Prix

POTRERILLOS, Honduras (AP) — Tropical Storm Sara on Sunday weakened to a tropical depression after making landfall in Belize, where forecasters expected heavy rain to cause flash flooding and mudslides.

The storm hit Belize after drenching the northern coast of Honduras, where it stalled since Friday, swelling rivers and trapping some people at home. The U.S. National Hurricane Center expected Sara to continue to lose strength as it moved further inland Sunday over the Yucatan Peninsula.

Portions of Belize, El Salvador, eastern Guatemala, western Nicaragua and Mexico’s state of Quintana Roo could see up to 5 inches (13 cm) of rain, with localized totals reaching 15 inches (38 cm). The conditions “will result in areas of flash flooding, perhaps significant, along with the potential of mudslides,” according to the Hurricane Center.

Meanwhile, northern Honduras was not in the clear yet. The center expected Sara to drop up to 3 inches (8 cm) of rain there, but some areas could see the totals hit 40 inches (1 meter), with “catastrophic and life-threatening flooding” still possible.

Residents of the Potrerillos community, which sits in a tropical lowland in northwest Honduras, were evacuated from their homes due to the weather system, and some sought refuge at a school-turned-shelter.

On Sunday, food, plastic bags filled with clothes, appliances and other things filled the shelter as people waited to figure out what to do next after a swollen river flooded their homes.

The community, however, already faced that dilemma. It was ravaged in November 2020, when storms Eta and Iota passed through Honduras after initially making landfall in Nicaragua as powerful Category 4 hurricanes. Northern Honduras caught the worst of the storms with torrential rains that set off flooding that displaced hundreds of thousands. Eta alone was responsible for as much as 30 inches (76 cm) of rain along the northern coast.

“This flood that just happened is small compared to that of Eta and Iota… This, here, was full of people,” resident Israel Martinez said as he pointed around the shelter were he relocated after the 2020 storms and again this weekend. “For now, there are few who are sheltered here.”

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Associated Press writer Regina Garcia Cano contributed to this report from Mexico City.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

NEW YORK – Winnipeg Jets defenceman Neal Pionk has been fined US$5,000 by the NHL for clipping Florida Panthers forward Jesper Boqvist.

The offence took place at 14:36 of the third period in Winnipeg’s 5-0 loss to Florida on Saturday.

Boqvist was in the Jets’ zone and wrapped a pass around Pionk to teammate Anton Lundell.

The moment the puck came off his stick, Pionk hipchecked Boqvist, whose body spun in midair before hitting the ice.

Boqvist was down for some moments after the play and Pionk was not penalized for the play.

The fine is the maximum allowable under the collective bargaining agreement.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 17, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

HACHINOHE, Japan – Ivanie Blondin led the way in a five-medal day for Canada at the Four Continents speedskating championships on Sunday.

The Ottawa native won gold in the women’s mass start with a time of nine minutes 23.28 seconds. It was the 34-year-old’s third individual distance medal of the weekend, having also captured bronze in both the 1,500 metres and 3,000.

In the men’s mass start, David La Rue of Saint-Lambert, Que., and Toronto’s Hayden Mayeur captured silver and bronze.

La Rue was leading entering the final lap, but a slight slip exiting the final corner allowed Kazakhstan’s Vitaliy Chshigolev to gain ground and outstretch him at the finish line.

“I am really happy to have reached the podium with Hayden today,” La Rue said. “It’s kind of funny because we were talking strategy before the race and told ourselves that we would stay behind to conserve our energy, but in the end that’s not at all what happened.

“There was an attack early in the race and the peloton didn’t react at all. I started accelerating on the outside and looked at Hayden, and we decided to go. We worked together until the end of the race so that the rest of the peloton couldn’t catch up. The Kazakh skater managed to close the gap.”

Mayeur also earned bronze in the men’s team pursuit, alongside teammates Connor Howe of Canmore, Alta., and Calgary’s Ted-Jan Bloemen. The new skater lineup crossed the finish line in 3:47.43, placing them behind Japan (3:44.47) and the United-States (3:43.13).

“We weren’t as quick as he had hoped to be, but this is a new team pursuit group,” Mayeur said. “Ted-Jan is back in the mix for these Four Continents and the upcoming World Cups, so we were just finding our bearings as a team skating together.

“All things considered; we really were not that far off from being competitive for the top spot. We were able to extract a lot of information from this first race together so that we improve and contest for a medal at the upcoming World Cup.”

Laurent Dubreuil of Lévis, Que., earned his second individual distance medal of the weekend, taking bronze in the men’s 1,000. The 32-year-old sprinter posted a time of 1:09.52.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 17, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.