Weekend Roundup: End of season awards and Olympic wrestling qualification
Despite challenging world news over the past few days, Team Canada had moments of celebration over the weekend, notably with four wrestlers securing their spot for Tokyo 2020.
Four Wrestlers Qualify for Tokyo
READ: Reigning Olympic champion Erica Wiebe leads four Team Canada wrestlers heading to Tokyo
Reigning Olympic champion in the 76kg category, Erica Wiebe, along with her teammates Danielle Lappage, Jordan Steen and Amar Dhesi all booked their ticket to Tokyo 2020 at the Pan Am Olympic Qualifier.
This will be the second Olympic Games for both Wiebe and Lappage, and the first for Steen and Dhesi.
The Canadian wrestlers that did not qualify this weekend will have one last chance at the World Qualification Tournament in June.
READ: Tokyo 2020 Team Canada Qualification Tracker
The 🤴 Wins His Ninth Straight Crystal Globe
READ: Mikaël Kingsbury wins ninth consecutive Crystal Globe
Mikaël Kingsbury had unofficially secured the Crystal Globe last weekend, but on Friday he was also awarded the small globe for being the best male moguls skier and the Crystal Globe for the best athlete out of all freestyle skiing disciplines combined.
His seven wins and three second places on the World Cup circuit took him to the top of the men’s standings with 94 points in the World Cup standings. He is now one Crystal Globe away from tying the record of ten held by Switzerland’s Conny Kissling.
Fellow Canadians Noah Bowman (second in halfpipe skiing) and Kevin Drury (fourth in ski cross) also finished in the top five in the general classification.
Canada also captured the Nations Cup, awarded to the best country across all freestyle skiing disciplines. Canada has won this award every year since at least 2007 (FIS archived results only go back to that year).
The FIS Male Rookie of the Year award went to Canadian moguls skier Brayden Kuroda, who died last month.
Kevin Drury Wins His First Crystal Globe 🥳
After delivering the best World Cup season of his career, Drury was awarded his first-ever ski cross Crystal Globe as the top male athlete. Over this season, he won four races and finished in second place two times.
Davis Cup Finals Draw Revealed 👀
The Davis Cup Finals won’t take place until November 2020, but the groups were revealed last week. Canada, ranked sixth in the world, will be in Group B and face Kazakhstan and Sweden, who are ranked 12th and 14th, respectively, in the first round.
READ: FAQ: What are Davis Cup and Fed Cup?
Remember the 2019 Davis Cup Finals? Vasek Pospisil and Denis Shapovalov led Canada to its best finish ever at the Davis Cup Finals. If that doesn’t make you look forward to the 2020 finals…
