Weekend Roundup: Team Canada totals nine World Cup medals
It was a nonstop weekend for Team Canada as they dominated at home and across the globe for three gold medals, four silver medals and two bronze medals, resulting in a grand total of nine World Cup medals.
Freestyle Skiing
READ: Kingsbury remains on top, Philippe Marquis claims silver at moguls worlds in Japan
During the World Cup in Tazawako, Japan, Canada saw an exciting double podium, and back-to-back gold medals for the King himself.
On Saturday, Mikaël Kingsbury claimed a gold medal, and Philippe Marquis returned to the podium with a silver medal.
Even though Kingsbury added another gold to his ever growing collection, Saturday will be one to remember for the reigning world champion. Kingsbury took a chance and completed the cork 1440 for the first time in a World Cup competition, resulting in a final score of 86.70.
Philippe Marquis wasn’t too far behind on the podium, earning a score of 83.67 to claim silver. This was also his first podium finish since February 2017 due to an ACL injury, making this event another one to remember.
Within 24 hours, Kingsbury earned his second gold medal of the weekend during the dual moguls competition. Kingsbury completed another cork 1440 for a score of 87.94 to advance past Japan’s Ikuma Horishima (86.63). This will total 56 World Cup wins for the King.
Skeleton
READ: Skeleton: Mirela Rahneva and Elisabeth Maier double up in Calgary
READ: Rahneva, Kripps and Sommer slide to silver medals at IBSF Worlds in Calgary
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
Team Canada saw another double podium and a silver medal, this time for Mirela Rahneva and Elisabeth Maier on home-soil at the IBSF World Cup in Calgary. Rahneva captured a gold and a silver medal, and Maier earned bronze.
On Friday, Rahneva had the first run, and flew down the track at Winsport Centre posting a final score of 1:54:52 for gold. Her times of 57.38 seconds and 57.14 s could not be beat.
Elisabeth Maier claimed bronze for her second World Cup medal of the season with a time of 1:55.20.
During the women’s skeleton event on Saturday, Rahneva was on the podium once again to claim herself a silver medal. She recorded a time of 58.94 seconds to finish second in the heats, and then improved her next run to 58.58 s. Rahneva finished 0.13 s short of Germany’s gold medallist Tina Hermann (1:57.39). Her performances from the weekend put her third overall in the 2018-2019 world standings.
Two-Man Bobsleigh
Justin Kripps and Ryan Sommer also slid their way to a silver medal on Saturday in Calgary. The duo missed first place by 0.09 seconds behind Germany’s Francesco Friedrich and Thorston Margis time of 1:50.84.
Alpine Ski
READ: Alpine Ski: Roni Remme wins first World Cup medal in Switzerland
AP Photo/Alessandro Trovati
Roni Remme secured her first World Cup podium during the FIS Alpine World Cup in Crans-Montana, Switzerland on Sunday. The 23-year old competed in the women’s combined, and was initially in sixth place after the downhill race. This was a similar performance to her all-time best, fifth place finish from the 2019 Audi FIS Alpine World Championships. Fortunately, Remme had an outstanding slalom run to win a silver medal. Her time of 2:15.58 placed her 0.38 seconds behind Italy’s Federica Brignone and ahead of Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener (2:16.24).
Ski Cross
READ: Brady Leman races to bronze at ski cross worlds in Russia
On the other side in Sunny Valley, Russia, Brady Leman captured bronze at the FIS Ski Cross World Cup on Sunday for his 25th World Cup medal, and third World Cup medal of the season. Off the start, it was a race to the finish, and Leman came up just short behind gold medallist Bastien Midol of France and Alex Fiva from Switzerland.
Athletics
Jenna Westaway broke the 800m national record in Boston with a time of 1:59.87. Melissa Bishop was the previous record holder setting a time of 2:00.19 in 2016. In France, Alysha Newman set a new personal best and Canadian record of 4.73m in pole vault.
Basketball
The Senior Men’s National Team finished first in their pool for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Americas Qualifiers after beating Venezuela 95-55 on Sunday. The FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 will take place in China from August 31-September 15, 2019. This will be their largest event with 32 participating teams playing 92 games over 16 days. Then, for the first time ever, FIBA Basketball World Cup will qualify seven teams for Tokyo 2020.
Tennis
Félix Auger-Aliassime suffered defeat in the Rio Open Finals on Sunday with a score of 6-3, 7-5. The 18-year old, the youngest finalist of an ATP 500, was beat by 23-year old Serbian Laslo Djere. Notably, Auger-Aliassime is now ranked at no. 59, moving up over 40 spots in a weeks time.
