2022 Commonwealth Games: Two medals for Maggie Mac Neil on Day 2
Team Canada continued to add to its medal haul on Day 2 of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.
A couple of Olympic champions from Tokyo 2020 — Maggie Mac Neil and Kelsey Mitchell — earned their first individual medals of the Games as Canadian athletes stood on seven podiums over the course of the day.
Team Canada at the 2022 Commonwealth Games
Here’s a quick look at what happened:
Swimming
Maggie Mac Neil won the gold medal in the women’s 100m butterfly, breaking the Commonwealth Games record with her time of 56.36 seconds. The reigning Olympic champion in the event returned to the top of the podium after choosing not to swim any individual events at the recent FINA World Championships.
She out touched Australian Emma McKeon at the wall by just 0.02 of a second. McKeon had held a slight lead at the turn, but Mac Neil used a great underwater kick to power her way ahead. Katerine Savard placed fifth (58.09) in the final while Rebecca Smith (59.54) finished eighth.
A little over a half hour later (and right after Mac Neil’s medal ceremony), those three women were back in the water with Summer McIntosh for the final of the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay in which they won the bronze medal. McIntosh led off and had Canada in third place when she passed off to Savard. She and Smith kept Canada in that position for anchor swimmer Mac Neil, who did her best to make up ground on England, but was beaten out for the silver. Australia dominated the race to win gold by almost six seconds.
Canada also won bronze in the men’s 4x100m freestyle final. Joshua Liendo had Canada in the lead after his leadoff leg but Ruslan Gaziev couldn’t quite hold it as Australia pulled ahead. Next in was Finlay Knox who found himself in a battle with England for second, but handed over to anchor swimmer Javier Acevedo in third place, which is how they finished.
Para swimmer Nicolas Guy Turbide won gold in the men’s S13 50m freestyle final.
Earlier in the session, Liendo finished sixth in the men’s 50m butterfly final after swimming a personal best time of 23.42 seconds. Collyn Gagne was seventh in the men’s 400m individual medley final. Kylie Masse was the fastest in the 100m backstroke semifinals with a time of 58.83 seconds. She’ll be joined in the final by Mary-Sophie Harvey, who ranked sixth in the semis.
Track Cycling
Kelsey Mitchell won her second silver medal in as many days as she finished as the runner-up in the women’s individual sprint. The reigning Olympic champion in the event, Mitchell dropped two straight races against Ellesse Andrews of New Zealand in the gold medal final. Lauriane Genest and Sarah Orban, who had both joined with Mitchell to win silver in the team sprint on Friday, were eliminated in the quarterfinals on Saturday.
Maggie Coles-Lyster, Ariane Bonhomme, and Devaney Collier played seventh, eighth, and 13th, respectively, in the women’s individual pursuit. Michael Foley, Mathia Guillemette, and Riley Pickrell finished 13th, 14th, and 16th in the men’s individual pursuit.
Artistic Gymnastics
The Canadian quintet of Emma Spence, Maya Zonneveld, Jenna Lalonde, Laurie Denommee and Cassandra Lee won the bronze medal in the women’s team event. Their final score of 152.700 put them on the podium behind England (161.100) and Australia (158.000)
Spence is the number four qualifier for the all-around final in which she’ll be joined by Denommee, who qualified two spots back. Spence also qualified for all four apparatus finals. Denommee heads to the vault final as the number two qualifier while Lee was the second qualifier for the floor exercise final, one spot ahead of Spence. Lalonde will be in the uneven bars final alongside Spence.
Weightlifting
Hannah Kaminski won the bronze medal in the women’s 49kg weight class. She lifted a total weight of 170kg after successfully listing 74kg in the snatch portion and 97kg in the clean and jerk. Kaminski was just one kilo short of matching the weight lifted by silver medallist Marie Ranaivosoa of Mauritius. Chanu Mirabai of India took the gold medal with a Commonwealth Games record of 201kg lifted.
Canada came close to two more weightlifting medals. Youri Simard finished one kilo short of the podium in the men’s 61kg event, placing fourth. Rachel Leblanc-Bazinet also ended up fourth in the women’s 55kg event.
Rugby
The Canadian women finished second in their pool with a record of two wins and one loss. That set up a semifinal showdown with Fiji who had topped the other pool with a 3-0 record. The Fijians came away the victors in that match, winning 24-7 on the strength of four tries. Canada’s lone try was scored by captain Breanne Nicholas. The Canadians will play New Zealand for the bronze medal on Sunday.
The Canadian men had also placed second in their pool with an identical record of two wins and one loss. That put them into a quarterfinal matchup against South Africa who had had gone undefeated in pool play. Unfortunately, that game went all South Africa’s way as they won 33-0.
Commonwealth Games Medal Table after Day 2:
| Team | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | 13 | 8 | 11 | 32 |
| England | 5 | 12 | 4 | 21 |
| New Zealand | 7 | 4 | 2 | 13 |
| Scotland | 2 | 4 | 6 | 12 |
| Canada | 3 | 3 | 5 | 11 |
The 2022 Commonwealth Games will run through August 8 and feature 268 Canadian athletes competing in 18 sports and five para sports. You can stream the action live on CBC Gem, cbcsports.ca and the CBC Sports app for iOS and Android devices. Some competition will also be featured on CBC TV broadcasts on the weekends.
