Weekend Roundup: Ware’s triple podium weekend at home World Cup leads Team Canada’s success
Pamela Ware and the Canadian team put on a show for the home fans in Montreal at the World Aquatics Diving World Cup as they captured four medals.
Aaron Brown had a solid start to the Diamond League season and Canadian wrestlers won a dozen medals at the Pan American Championships.
Keep reading to learn more about some outstanding Team Canada results you might have missed this past weekend.
Diving: Ware dives to multi medal weekend in Montreal 🇨🇦
Pamela Ware had a great weekend in her first major competition since Tokyo 2020. The 30-year-old from Greenfield Park, Quebec was at home in Montreal’s Olympic Park, contributing to three of Canada’s four medals. It was a big confidence boost for Ware who has spent the last year working on the mental side of the sport.
READ: Ware delivers second medal of the weekend on final day of Diving World Cup
On Friday, Ware and Mia Vallée won bronze in the women’s 3m synchro event by a slim margin of just 0.84 of a point. They pulled themselves onto the podium with their highest-scoring dive of the day in their final round. Remarkably, the duo had only started practicing together on Tuesday.
On Sunday, Ware grabbed the silver medal in the women’s 3m springboard. She held onto that second place position through the last three rounds of diving. The competition closed later in the day with Canada winning silver in the non-Olympic mixed 3m &10m team event. Ware was Canada’s women’s 3m representative, competing alongside Caeli McKay (women’s 10m), Bryden Hattie (men’s 3m) and Nathan Zsombor-Murray (men’s 10m).
That was the second medal of the day for 20-year-old Zsombor-Murray, who won bronze in the men’s 10m platform for the best individual result of his career.
Some other notable results included a fifth-place finish for Caeli McKay and Kate Miller in the women’s 10m synchro. That was their first competition together as a team. McKay also finished fifth individually in the women’s 10m platform. She was in her first international competition since undergoing ankle surgery last fall.
Athletics: Aaron Brown claims bronze in Qatar
Aaron Brown won the bronze medal in the men’s 200m at the first Diamond League meet of the season in Doha, Qatar. He finished in a time of 20.20 seconds, placing him behind a pair of Americans, Fred Kerley (19.92) and Kenneth Bednarek (20.11). Bednarek won silver in the event at Tokyo 2020 behind Andre De Grasse. The Canadian Olympic champion placed sixth in Doha in 20.35 seconds.
“The time wasn’t great, but third place is good. I executed the race well, but I did tie up at the end. Overall, it was a good night,” said Brown.
Wrestling: Huge Team Canada medal haul at 2023 Pan Am Championships 🤼
Canadian wrestlers made it a perfect dozen when it came to medals won at the 2023 Pan American Championships in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The haul of 12 included two gold medals. Ana Godinez Gonzalez completed her title run in the women’s 62kg event when she put Venezuelan Nathali Griman Herrera on her back for a fall within just a minute and 21 seconds. Diana Weicker, a bronze medallist at the worlds in 2018, won gold in the non-Olympic women’s 55kg event. It is her first continental title.
Four other Canadian women reached the podium. Alexandria Town took silver in the non-Olympic 59kg event. Bronze medals were added by Justina Di Stasio (76kg), Aleah Nickel (65kg, non-Olympic), and Katie Mulkay (72kg, non-Olympic)
There were also six medals from the Canadian men in freestyle events. Alexander Moore won silver in the 86kg weight class while Connor Quinton (70kg), Jasmit Phulka (79kg) and Jeremy Poirier (92kg) also won silver in their non-Olympic events. Nishan Randhawa earned a bronze in the 97kg event. Jason Luneau grabbed bronze in the non-Olympic 61kg event.
Fencing: Harvey shines in return to the piste 🤺
At the Foil World Cup in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, the Canadian women’s team Sabrina Fang, Jessica Guo, Eleanor Harvey, and Yunjia Zhang finished fourth after dropping their semifinal against Italy, the world’s top-ranked team. Individually, Harvey was Canada’s top competitor as she placed sixth overall. She had a tough opponent in the quarterfinals in the form of American Lee Kiefer, the world number one who went on to win the tournament. Harvey has moved up to seventh in the world rankings.
Meanwhile, Ruien (Angel) Xiao made quite the impression at the Epee Grand Prix in Cali, Colombia. The 15-year-old finished seventh in the women’s individual event. She is 11 years younger than any other athlete who placed in the top 10.
Artistic Swimming: Canada comes close to podium placements at World Cup 💦
At the second meet of the World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup in Montpellier, France, Canada placed fourth in the team acrobatic event and fifth in the mixed team free event. Audrey Lamothe had a good outing in the women’s solo technical event, placing fifth.
