International
Crew and O’Connell find the podium at Taipei Stadium
Four medals in gymnastics and diving highlighted day five action for Team Canada at the 29th Summer Universiade in Taipei on Wednesday.
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Brittany Rogers and Ellie Black were golden on the final day of artistic gymnastics competition. Rogers won the vault event, while Black captured gold on the beam and bronze on the uneven bars.
“It’s amazing bringing such a strong team here and then being able to show strong individual results too,” said Rogers. “I’m really glad we’ve been able to have a great showing for Canada and every competition we do, we keep improving as a team and as a country.”
The women’s artistic gymnastics team won a total of five medals for Team Canada at the Summer Universiade. In the individual floor event Black finished just off the podium in fourth.
“This Games has been awesome,” said Black. “As a team, we were looking to show what we can do here and what Canadian gymnastics is all about. We have great team support and that carried through, even when you’re out there on your own competing.”
At the Shih-hsin Hall Diving Pool, Celina Toth won bronze medal in the women’s 10m platform event. The medal is the first for Team Canada at the diving pool and is the third Universiade medal in Toth’s career after she won two medals in 2015 at Gwangju.
“To put down my fourth dive was the newest dive for me and I was really nervous about it so to have that be one of my best scores today was really exciting,” said Toth following the medal ceremony. “I was excited to put all the dives in that I’ve been working on and it was a step up from the prelims to the semi even to the final and that’s the main goal I was working on this year.”
Canada’s Elaena Dick also had a strong competition finishing just off the podium in fourth place.
Team Canada now has nine medals, surpassing their 2015 Gwangju Universiade total of eight, and now sits in 10th place in the overall medal standings.
Men’s soccer
Two goals scored by the Canadians lifted them over Malaysia by a score of 2-1 on Wednesday afternoon at the Summer Universiade. Simon Kougnima and Connor MacMillan put the ball through the posts for the Canadians in the win. The men’s soccer team will take on the USA in a classification match on August 25 at 4:00 a.m. Eastern time.
Women’s basketball
The Canadian women's basketball team had a tough second half on Wednesday against Japan, which inflicted Canada’s first loss of the 2017 Summer Universiade preliminary round with a score of 85-65.
Canada committed no less than 31 turnovers in the game, compared with only 10 for Japan. Paige Crozon led Canada with 16 points, while Ceejay Nofuente added 14 plus eight rebounds.
The duel was the decider for first place in Group B. Canada (2-1) thus finishes 2nd. Canada is now going to face Chinese Taipei in their quarter-final matchup Friday, August 25 at 5:30 a.m. Eastern time.
Women’s volleyball
Canada was unable to carry momentum steadily through their final pool play match in pool play on Wednesday, which resulted in a 3-1 loss to Argentina in women’s volleyball action at Taiwan University Sports Center.
From the beginning of the first set the red and white were behind, but late in the set bounced back and were able to close the gap to narrowly lose 25-23. Kelsey Veltman (Western) led the Canadians with 12 points (eight kills, two blocks, two aces), while Danielle Brisebois (UBC) led the Canadians with 10 kills.
Canada finished fourth in Pool B and will now play a classification match on August 25 against the Czech Republic.
Men’s water polo
With the lone goal in the fourth quarter, Great Britain was able to knock off Canada 7-6 in men’s water polo Round of 16 action on Wednesday.
Goals by Sean Spooner, Devon Thumwood, Nikita Prokhin and Reuel D’Souza gave the Canadians a 4-3 lead at halftime. Spooner and Thumwood scored the lone goals in the second half, both in the third quarter.
Canada will now play in the 9-16 place bracket against South Africa on Friday, August 25 at 9 a.m. local time (9 p.m. Eastern time Thursday).
Swimming
Team Canada had medal hopes in three events on Wednesday night but came away from the pool with no hardware to show for their efforts. Alexia Zevnik finished fourth in the 100m women’s backstroke final while Sarah Darcel placed fifth in the 200 IM final. The women’s 4 x 200m relay team finished the evening with a fifth-place showing.
Also competing on Wednesday night were Darcel and Kelsey Wog in the 200m breaststroke semifinal but both failed to qualify for Thursday’s final. Katerine Savard placed seventh in her 100m butterfly semifinal.
Athletics
Two Canadians qualified for their respective finals in Wednesday’s qualifying rounds. Agnes Esser finished fourth in her group with a best throw of 52.69. Her final will be August 24 at 5:35 a.m. Eastern time. Cole Peterson qualified for the men’s 1500m final on August 25 at 6:35 a.m. Eastern time with a time of 3:50.12. Numerous athletes qualified for semifinals on August 24.
Also in action
In the opening day of competition for badminton, the mixed Canadian team won both matches. They defeated Estonia 4-1 and the Philippines 5-0. The final match before the mixed team final is at 9 p.m. Eastern time against Germany.
At taekwondo, Shane Britton advanced to the 58 Kg Round of 16, where he was defeated 14-8 by Belgium’s Mourad Laachraoui. In the men’s 80 Kg competition, Adam Tomlinson advanced from the Round of 32 by defeating Ulysses Haller (Thailand) 18-10. In the Round of 16, Moises Daniel Hernandez (Dominican Republic) knocked out the Canadian by winning 12-6.
In table tennis, Canada’s men’s team was blanked 3-0 against Korea while the women’s team also lost 3-0 against Singapore.