Canada's defending-champion women's 8 rowing team to compete in repechage for spot in final
Humana-Paredes, Wilkerson post lopsided win in Olympic beach volleyball debut
Canada's defending-champion women's eight rowing team will row in a repechage after finishing third in its heat Monday morning at the Paris Games.
The team clocked six minutes 21.31 seconds over 2,000 metres at Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, finishing behind Great Britain (6:16.20) and Australia (6:18.61) in Heat 1. Denmark came in fourth at 6:39.30.
Romania came in first in Heat 2, finishing in 6:12.31, followed by the United States with 6:19.00 and Italy with 6:28.47.
The winners of each heat advance to Saturday's final, while the others face off in the repechage on Thursday for another chance at qualifying for the final.
Coxswain Kristen Kit of St. Catharines, Ont., Calgary's Kasia Gruchalla-Wesierski, Toronto's Sydney Payne and Avalon Wasteneys of Campbell River, B.C., are returning athletes from the victorious eights team at the Tokyo Olympics.
They are joined by Abby Dent of Kenora, Ont., Victoria's Caileigh Filmer, Maya Meschkuleit of Mississauga, Ont., Jessica Sevick of Strathmore, Alta., and Kristina Walker of Wolfe Island, Ont.
Canada has just two boats rowing in Paris after qualifying 10 for Tokyo.
Jenny Casson of Kingston, Ont., and Jill Moffatt of Bethany, Ont., qualified for the semifinal in lightweight women's double sculls after finishing second in a repechage Monday morning.
"We messed up [Sunday]," Casson said of their third-place finish in their heat. "We went out, we were prepared, we were confident, and I think we got caught out. We didn't bring enough force to be able to stay with the big dogs and that showed.
"We had our intention and our minds a little bit too lackadaisical for the Olympic Games.
"As soon as we finished we took a moment to ourselves and we were like, 'all right, we didn't come ready to attack it like France and New Zealand, and they really set a standard that we're hoping and we're looking to aspire to come Wednesday, come the semifinals'."
WATCH l How does rowing work at the Olympics?:
Humana-Paredes, Wilkerson win in beach volleyball
Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson cruised to victory in their first beach volleyball match at the Paris Olympics, defeating Paraguay's Giuliana Poletti and Michelle Valiente Amarilla 2-0 on Monday.
Set scores were 21-16, 21-12 in a match that took 42 minutes to complete.
Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson, both from Toronto, entered Paris as the world No. 3 women's beach volleyball tandem.
They are making their Olympic debut as a team. Both competed at the Tokyo Games with different partners.
"As a new team, we've fairly quickly put targets on our backs by positioning ourselves as one of the top teams in the world. I definitely think when people play us they're worried," Humanes-Parades said.
Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson will next face Switzerland's Zoe Verge-Depre and Esmee Boebner on Wednesday.
Also Monday, Heather Bansley of Waterdown, Ont., and Toronto's Sophie Bukovec fell to 0-2 in Paris after a 2-0 loss to China's Xue Chen and Xia Xinyi. Set scores were 21-15, 21-19.
WATCH l Full match replay — Humana-Paredes/Wilkerson vs. Valiente Amarilla/Poletti:
Sanford dominates Olympic boxing debut fight
Canada's Wyatt Sanford made his Olympic debut with a dominant win over Bulgaria's Radoslav Rosenov in the men's 63.5-kilogram Round of 16 Monday.
All five judges awarded the victory to Sanford, who was a unanimous winner of Rounds 1 and 2.
Rosenov won Round 3 in a 3-2 split.
Sanford, who had a bye in the first round as the top seed in the event, will face Uzbekistan's Ruslan Abdullaev in the quarterfinals on Thursday.
The 25-year-old from Kennetcook, N.S., won gold in the 63.5-kg event in his Pan American Games debut last year in Santiago, Chile.
He is a four-timer Canadian youth champion and won his first senior title in 2018 in the 64-kg weight class.
Britain win eventing team gold, Canada 11th
British eventing riders Ros Canter, Laura Collett and Tom McEwen won team gold on Monday after solid rides in the show-jumping final as France had to settle for silver in front of a euphoric home crowd due to too many glitches.
Canada's team of Jessica Phoenix, Karl Slezak and Michael Winter finished in eleventh place overall in the 16-nation standings.
Slezak was the best-ranked Canadian individually, in the 32th position. Winter was 35th, with Phoenix 38th.
The British team ended the three-day competition with a combined score of 91.3 penalty points ahead of France with 103.6 and Japan with 115.8.
Britain were the clear favorite for gold after Germany dropped out of the race when one of their riders fell.
Jumping in a packed arena in the chateau gardens of Versailles, many riders said the loud crowd was challenging, especially for younger horses that had gained no such experience over the past years marked by the COVID pandemic.
Other Canadian results:
- Cordano Russell of London, Ont., finished seventh in the men's skate street finals. Despite impressing in the trick part of the event, with scores of 94.93 and 93.32, his previous 23.55 point tally in the run meant he was virtually out of medal contention.
- Canada's Alex Baldoni was 15th in the men's canoe single semifinals.
- Gunnar Holmgren of Orillia, Ont., was 30th in the cycling mountain bike men's cross-country race. Tom Pidcock rallied from a punctured tire to win his second straight gold medal on Monday, fighting off Viktor Koretzky on a dramatic final lap to deny a French sweep of the men's and women's races at Elancourt Hill.
With files from Reuters and CBC Sports
