How Canada's Olympic athletes did this weekend
Hammer-throw record, rowing gold highlight the top performances
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One of Canada's top Olympic teams won a gold medal, a track and field standout broke a record and some Canadian boxers moved closer to qualifying for Paris. Here's a look at some of the top performances by Canadian summer Olympic athletes over the weekend:
Canada's women's eight rowing team won gold at a World Cup regatta.
After sitting out the World Cup opener in Italy, the reigning Olympic champions showed they'll be a threat to repeat this summer in Paris, overcoming a late lineup change to win Sunday's race in Switzerland. Spare Kristen Siermachesky stepped in for an ill Avalon Wasteneys, while Abigail Dent moved to a different seat. "We embraced the last-minute changes and used it to our advantage," said Dent.
Three women in the Canadian boat were on the crew that won Olympic gold three years ago in Tokyo: Kasia Gruchalla-Wesierski, Sydney Payne and coxswain Kristen Kit. Wasteneys was part of that team too. Dent, Jessica Sevick, Caileigh Filmer, Maya Meschkuleit, Kristen Siermachesky and Kristina Walker have since come on board.
The women's eight will be one of just two Canadian rowing entries in Paris. The other is the women's lightweight double skulls tandem of Jill Moffatt and Jennifer Casson. They finished fourth on Sunday.
Camryn Rogers broke the Diamond League record in the women's hammer throw.
The reigning world champion and Olympic gold-medal contender won her event at Saturday's Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Ore., with a toss of 77.76 metres. That's the best ever at a Diamond League meet, and it topped Rogers' 77.22m to capture gold at the world championships in Budapest last August.
Eugene's historic Hayward Field has been good to the 24-year-old Rogers. She won two of her three NCAA outdoor titles there, along with a silver at the 2022 world championships.
Canada's Jillian Weir placed eighth in the women's hammer throw on Saturday, while Anicka Newell was sixth in the women's pole vault, Regan Yee finished 14th in the women's steeplechase and Aaron Brown was sixth in the men's 200m, won by Olympic silver medallist Kenny Bednarek of the United States.
WATCH | Rogers sets meet, Diamond League hammer-throw record:
Sha'Carri Richardson and Christian Coleman gave the U.S. a sweep of the 100m events, Kenya's Beatrice Chebet set a new world record of 28:54.14 in the women's 10,000m, and Great Britain's Josh Kerr outduelled Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen to win the prestigious Bowerman Mile in a battle of the reigning world and Olympic 1,500m champions. Read more about the Prefontaine Classic and watch highlights here.
Andre De Grasse will compete in the men's 100m and 200m events at Tuesday's Golden Spike meet in Ostrava, Czech Republic. In the 100, the back-to-back Olympic bronze medallist faces Italy's Marcell Jacobs, who won gold in 2021 in Tokyo and now trains alongside De Grasse in Florida. Jerome Blake, De Grasse's Canadian teammate in the 4x100m relay, is also in the 100, which goes at 12:10 p.m. ET. The 200 is at 1:30 p.m. ET. Watch the meet live from noon-2 p.m. ET on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.
Canadian boxers took a step toward the Olympics.
Nine Canadians were slated to fight in the final Olympic qualifiers taking place in Thailand through June 3. But Victor Tremblay withdrew from the opening round of the men's featherweight tournament on Friday due to "weight management reasons," Boxing Canada said. Today, men's middleweight Keven Beausejour was eliminated in the second round, leaving seven Canadians in the hunt for Olympic spots.
Junior Petanqui easily won his bout in the men's light middleweight division on Sunday to advance to the second round. Today, Terris Smith won her women's lightweight opener.
Men's super heavyweight Doni Foreman, women's flyweight Mckenzie Wright, women's bantamweight Scarlett Delgado, women's featherweight Marie Al-Ahmadieh and women's welterweight Sara Kali all have first-round matches coming up.
Women's middleweight Tammara Thibeault and men's welterweight Wyatt Sanford qualified for the Olympics with their gold-medal wins at last year's Pan American Games.
