Tokyo Olympics Day 12: Canada's Damien Warner ties his own world record in 100 m decathlon; Canadians ask IOC to move soccer gold-medal match due to extreme heat – Toronto Star
The latest Olympics news from Tokyo and around the world on Wednesday. Web links to longer stories if available:
12:50 a.m.: Team Canada has reportedly asked Olympic organizers to move the women’s gold-medal soccer match, which is slated for 11 a.m. local time, to later in the day to avoid extreme heat during the finals on Friday.
The Canadian Olympic Committe released a statement supporting the time change early Wednesday: “The COC supports Canada Soccer’s request to change the time of the women’s soccer final. It is in the best interest of the athletes,” said COC official Eric Myles.
More to come.
12:32 a.m.: Damian Warner of Canada is leading the Olympic decathlon with 2,966 points after the first three events.
Damian Warner of Canada is leading the Olympic decathlon with 2,966 points after the first three events. The 2016 Olympic bronze medallist is 223 points clear of fellow Canadian Pierce Lepage and 255 ahead of 2018 world junior champion Ash Moloney of Australia.
12:31 a.m.: Sakura Yosozumi of Japan has won the inaugural Olympic women’s park event in skateboarding, solidifying Japan’s dominance of the sport making its Olympic debut.
The silver went to Kokona Hiraki, who at 12 became Japan’s youngest Olympic medalist.
Britain’s Sky Brown prevented a Japanese medal sweep, taking the bronze.
12:21 a.m.: Kyra Constantine, Brampton, Ont., was 21st overall in women’s 400 qualifying (51.69) to earn a semifinals berth; Natassha McDonald, Brampton, Ont., was 36th (53.54), and did not advance.
The 31-year-old from London, Ont., ran 10.12 seconds in the 100 metres to tie his decathlon world record in the event.
Warner then crushed the field in the long jump, soaring 8.24 metres, the longest in Olympic decathlon history, and a distance that would have earned him a bronze medal in the open men’s long jump earlier in the week.
Warner was 11th in the shot put, but still earned enough points to maintain a commanding lead after three of 10 events with a score of 2,966.
10:42 p.m.: Sydney McLaughlin comes in first in the women’s 400 m finals, edging out her fellow American Dalilah Muhammad and setting a new world record.
Muhammad, who got out hard in the race and led through a majority of the race, took second in 51.58 and got under the previous world record of 51.90 that McLaughlin took from her at the U.S. Olympic Trials. 21-year-old Dutch star Femke Bol ran a personal best of 52.03 for a new European record and bronze.
Pierce LePage of Whitby, Ont., finished the 100 m in 10.43, and 7.65 in the long jump. After the first two events, Warner leads the field with 2,189 points and LePage is third (1,964).
The statue is positioned to the left of a jump placed in the corner of the arena. Hunched over and seemingly ready to attack, the wrestler is facing away from approaching riders, meaning that when they complete a sharp turn to take on the jump, the first thing horse and human see is the wedgie created by the wrestler’s mawashi.
“As you come around, you see a big guy’s (butt),” British rider Harry Charles said.
9:30 p.m.: In canoe 200m sprint, Katie Vincent of Mississauga (46.391) and Laurence Vincent Lapointe of Trois-Rivières, Quebec (45.408) both won their qualifying heat to earn a berth in the semifinals.
In men’s kayak 200m sprint, Mark de Jonge of Halifax (36.110) and Nicholas Matveev from Toronto (36.190), both finished fourth in their opening heats and will need to go through the quarterfinal round to advance.
8:51 p.m. (Updated) Canada’s Damian Warner opened his quest for an Olympic decathlon title in emphatic fashion.
Pierce LePage of Whitby, Ont., ran 10.43, the third-fastest time on the morning. Australia’s Ashley Moloney was second (10.34).
8:50 p.m.: Canadians Nicholas Matveev (36.190) and Mark de Jonge (36.110) qualified for the next round of men’s kayak single 200m.
8:44 p.m.: Canadian Georgia Ellenwood came in fifth in her heat in 100 m hurdles in women’s heptathon with a time of 13.47.
8:17 p.m.: Canadians Damien Warner and Pierce LePage came in first and third, respectively, in the third heat of 100 m in men’s decathlon.
8:15 p.m.: (Updated): Toronto’s Kate Sanderson finished 18th overall in two hours, four minutes and 59.1 seconds in the women’s 10-kilometre marathon swim.
8:11 p.m.: Bev Priestman’s message to the Canadian women’s soccer team before Thursday’s Tokyo 2020 final against Sweden will be straightforward.
“We’ve come this far,” Canada’s coach said after her team’s semifinal win over the United States. “I think that’s got to be the message. I think the group won’t go out to the final just happy to be there and go home with silver. I think if you’re going to do something, you may as well do it well.”
There will be little room for any lapse in discipline from the Canadian defence, particularly against a similarly disciplined Swedish team. One mistake in France bore a heavy cost.
Biles’ coach Cecile Cantqueteau-Landi opened up to reporters Tuesday about what Biles had been going through during the Tokyo Games including her aunt’s unexpected death.
7:30 p.m. (Updated): Canada missed the podium in women’s 10 km marathon swim. Brazil took gold, with Britain and Venezuela in second and third.
6:15 p.m.: So you want to jump on the Canadian women’s soccer bandwagon, but you don’t know where to start.
Look no further.
The national team inspired one nation and shocked another on Monday, when it beat the United States for the first time in more than 20 years to advance to the gold medal game. The win galvanized soccer fans across Canada, while also drawing in viewers who are new to the sport.
4:50 p.m.: It was a kind of northern “Steel Magnolias” cast — the ladies who were patrons in the beauty salon of Camryn Rogers’ mother — that convinced Camryn Rogers to take up the hammer throw.
“My mom is a hairdresser (in Richmond, B.C.) and she has a lot of clients and friends who were a part of the track club at home. They had told me for a really long time, ‘You should come out, you should try.’”
That nearly equaled the amount of time Springsteen lasted in her Olympic debut. She finished in an 11-way tie for 31st place, needing to finish 30th or higher to advance to the individual final. Her 12-year-old horse, Don Juan van de Donkhoeve, toppled a few bars toward the end of a routine he finished in 87.15 seconds on an uncharacteristically cool, breezy night.
4:30 p.m.: Time flies. So do Andre De Grasse and Aaron Brown.
The two Canadian men advanced to Wednesday’s Olympic 200-metre final, the first time in 93 years a brace of Canadian sprinters has pulled off that Olympic 200-final feat. Percy Williams and John Fitzpatrick did it in 1928 in Amsterdam. Williams won gold, Fitzpatrick finished fifth.
3:50 p.m.: If you wanted to take Canada’s performance in the women’s beach volleyball tournament at these Olympics and spin it positively, you probably had to freeze-frame the action at the headiest of moments.
Stop the tape in the giddy wake of the round of 16, when there were eight teams left in the competition and Canada was the only nation that could boast two, and you had yourself a shiny plot line. For the Canadian duos of Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes, and Heather Bansley and Brandie Wilkerson, being one match away from playing for a medal was a testament to a program on the rise, not to mention the fruits of five years of hard slogging in the wake of the Rio Olympics. It looked like a recipe to deliver Canada’s first Olympic podium in women’s beach volleyball.
If you stopped the action there, you had a happy, hopeful ending.
3:30 p.m.: On today’s Tokyo Daily, Brendan Dunlop talks with the Toronto Star’s Bruce Arthur in Tokyo about Andre De Grasse’s personal best time in the men’s 200-metre semifinal run, the gold medal match for Christine Sinclair and women’s soccer, what it’s like in the mixed zone in Tokyo and more.
12:30 p.m.: José Bautista did something for Dominican Republic on Tuesday that Blue Jays fans are quite familiar with.
He flipped his bat.
The 40-year-old Bautista, 0-for-8 at the Olympics before Tuesday, was left out of the Dominicans’ starting lineup as they faced Israel. He entered the game in the fourth inning after teammate Emilio Bonifacio suffered a hamstring injury. Bautista walked and flied out in his first two at-bats.
11:20 a.m.: Simone Biles choked on her words, suddenly, her throat closing. A few minutes before, Ellie Black had choked on her words, suddenly, her throat seizing up. Simone Biles spoke about how grateful she was to just be there, to try to stay on the balance beam, to compete. A few minutes before, Ellie Black had said, more or less, the same thing.
Canadian gymnast Ellie Black is not Simone Biles, because nobody is Biles, now or ever. Nobody faces that pressure, nobody can do what Biles does, nobody had their Olympics go sideways as publicly, and suddenly become the face of athlete mental health. That Biles was even in the balance beam final was a surprise, even to her. She wasn’t sure she would ever perform in gymnastics again. She thought she had let people down.
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TORONTO – Reigning PWHL MVP and scoring champ Natalie Spooner will miss the start of the regular season for the Toronto Sceptres, general manager Gina Kingsbury announced Tuesday on the first day of training camp.
The 33-year-old Spooner had knee surgery on her left anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) after she was checked into the boards by Minnesota’s Grace Zumwinkle in Game 3 of their best-of-five semifinal series on May 13.
She had a goal and an assist in three playoff games but did not finish the series. Toronto was up 2-1 in the semifinal at that time and eventually fell 3-2 in the series.
Spooner led the PWHL with 27 points in 24 games. Her 20 goals, including five game-winners, were nine more than the closest skater.
Kingsbury said there is no timeline, as the team wants the Toronto native at 100 per cent, but added that “she is doing really well” in her recovery.
The Sceptres open the PWHL season on Nov. 30 when they host the Boston Fleet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — A top official of the Pakistan Cricket Board declined Friday to confirm media reports that India has decided against playing any games in host Pakistan during next year’s Champions Trophy.
“My view is if there’s any problems, they (India) should tell us in writing,” PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi told reporters in Lahore. “I’ll share that with the media as well as with the government as soon as I get such a letter.”
Indian media reported Friday that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has communicated its concerns to all the Champions Trophy stakeholders, including the PCB, over the Feb. 19-March 9 tournament and would not play in arch-rival Pakistan.
The Times of India said that “Dubai is a strong candidate to host the fixtures involving the Men in Blue” for the 50-over tournament.
Such a solution would see Pakistan having to travel to a neutral venue to play India in a group match, with another potential meeting later in the tournament if both teams advanced from their group. The final is scheduled for March 9 in Pakistan with the specific venue not yet decided.
“Our stance is clear,” Naqvi said. “They need to give us in writing any objections they may have. Until now, no discussion of the hybrid model has happened, nor are we prepared to accept one.”
Political tensions have stopped bilateral cricket between the two nations since 2008 and they have competed in only multi-nation tournaments, including ICC World Cups.
“Cricket should be free of politics,” Naqvi said. “Any sport should not be entangled with politics. Our preparations for the Champions Trophy will continue unabated, and this will be a successful event.”
The PCB has already spent millions of dollars on the upgrade of stadiums in Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi which are due to host 15 Champions Trophy games. Naqvi hoped all the three stadiums will be ready over the next two months.
“Almost every country wants the Champions Trophy to be played here (in Pakistan),” Naqvi said. “I don’t think anyone should make this a political matter, and I don’t expect they will. I expect the tournament will be held at the home of the official hosts.”
Eight countries – Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, England, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Afghanistan – are due to compete in the tournament, the schedule of which is yet to be announced by the International Cricket Council.
“Normally the ICC announces the schedule of any major tournament 100 days before the event, and I hope they will announce it very soon,” Naqvi said.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Ottawa‘s Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand are through to the doubles final at the WTA Finals after a 7-6 (7), 6-1 victory over Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the United States and Australia’s Ellen Perez in semifinal action Friday.
Dabrowski and Routliffe won a hard-fought first set against serve when Routliffe’s quick reaction at the net to defend a Perez shot gave the duo set point, causing Perez to throw down her racket in frustration.
The second seeds then cruised through the second set, winning match point on serve when Melichar-Martinez couldn’t handle Routliffe’s shot.
The showdown was a rematch of last year’s semifinal, which Melichar-Martinez and Perez won in a super tiebreak.
Dabrowski and Routliffe will face the winner of a match between Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend, and Hao-Ching Chan and Veronika Kudermetova in the final on Saturday.
Dabrowski is aiming to become the first Canadian to win a WTA Finals title.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
