Canada has already posted some wins and losses during the first full day of competition at the Tokyo Olympics Saturday — including another victory for the women’s softball team and a disappointing start for men’s volleyball.
Here are some results from the day of competition so far:
Softball
Team Canada trounced Australia 7-1 in their third softball match of the Games, giving them a 2-1 record in the round-robin competition.
Canada came out of the gate strong, earning three runs in each of the first two innings and holding off Australia for the rest of the game.
The team will face Japan on Sunday and Italy on Monday to close out the series, where Canada is heavily favoured to earn a spot on the medal podium.
Rowing
Three rowing teams are now guaranteed to advance to semifinal rounds on Tuesday.
Canada’s Caileigh Filmer and Hillary Janssens won the first heat of the women’s pair rowing event, while Kai Langerfeld and Conlin McCabe placed third in the men’s pair event.
In the women’s lightweight double sculls, Jill Moffatt and Jennifer Casson placed second. Only the top two automatically advance to the next round in that event.
Patrick Keane and Maxwell Lattimer weren’t so lucky in the men’s lightweight double sculls, just missing out on a guaranteed semifinal spot by placing third. They’ll row against other lower-ranking teams in the repechage on Sunday for another chance to advance.
Canada’s women’s four and men’s four teams will also need to compete in repechages after placing third and fifth in their respective heats.
Despite placing second, the women’s eight team will have to face off in a repechage to try and make it into the final against New Zealand.
Volleyball
In indoor volleyball, the men’s team started strong in their first match of the Games against Italy, winning the first two sets. But Italy came bouncing back and tied up the regular play, forcing an overtime set that saw Italy prevail 3-2.
Canada will face Japan in the second game of the preliminary round on Monday.
It was a better story for the women in beach volleyball, where Team Canada shutout the Netherlands 2-0 in their first match of the Games.
Tennis
Get breaking National news
Canada’s Leylah Annie Fernandez won the first and third sets of her debut in the women’s singles event, defeating Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska.
In the first round of women’s doubles, however, Gabriela Dabrowski and Sharon Fichman lost to Brazil in the first two of three sets.
Taekwondo
Yvette Yong was unable to overcome her opponent, Vietnam’s Thi Kim Tuyen Truong, who won their match-up by a score of 19-5.
Boxing
Wyatt Sanford lost all five rounds against Mauritius’ Merven Clair by the slimmest of margins, earning nines from the judges in nearly every round while Clair scored 10s across the board.
Fencing
Shaul Gordon fell to Iran’s Mojtaba Abedini in the men’s individual sabre event, with a final score of 15-10.
Table Tennis
In the mixed doubles competition, Mo Zhang and Zhen Wang proved to be no match for China’s team, who won 4-1.
In the men’s singles event, teenager Jeremy Hazin, who was making his Olympic debut, lost to Bojan Tokic of Slovenia 4-0.
Field Hockey
Canada’s men’s field hockey team got off to a slow start, losing 7-1 to Germany in their opening Pool B match.
They next face Great Britain on Sunday.
Soccer
After drawing 1-1 against Japan on Wednesday, the Canadian women’s soccer team clinched its first win in the group stage against Chile.
Forward Janine Beckie scored two goals to give her side a 2-1 victory.
Canada, which is ranked 8th in the world, will next face Great Britain in their last group match on Tuesday.
Water Polo
Canada’s women team, which was making its first Olympic appearance since Athens 2004, dropped their opening match against Australia, losing 8-5.
They will next take on Spain on Monday.
Cycling
After a gruelling six hours and a close sprint to the finish line, Canadian cyclist Michael Woods came 5th in the 234-kilometre men’s road race along the Fuji International Speedway.
Ecuador’s Richard Carapaz took gold, followed by Belgian Wout van Aert and Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia, who won the silver and bronze medals respectively.
Other Canadians in the race were Guillaume Boivin, who came in 65th place and Hugo Houle was the last rider to cross the finish line.
Artistic Gymnastics
René Cournoyer, Canada’s sole men’s artistic gymnast competing at the Tokyo Olympics, was in action on six apparatuses in the second subdivision early on Saturday.
With an overall score of 77.697 points for his performances on the vault, parallel bars, horizontal bar, floor exercise, pommel horse and rings, Cournoyer failed to advance to the final round.
Badminton
It was a disappointing day on the court for Canada’s badminton players.
On the first day of action, Jason Ho-Shue and Nyl Yakura lost their Group D men’s doubles match against the second-ranked Indonesian duo of Mohammed Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan.
In mixed doubles, Joshua Hurlburt-Yu and Josephine Wu were defeated by Thailand’s Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai in a Group B encounter.
In women’s doubles, Rachel Honderich and Kristen Tsai got off to a good start winning the first game 21-16, before losing the next two 21-14, 21-15 against their Dutch opponents in a closely-contested Group B match.
Swimming
Several Canadian swimmers were in action in heats on Saturday morning Eastern time.
In the women’s 100m butterfly, reigning world champion Margaret Mac Neil advanced to the semifinals along with Katerine Savard.
Canada’s women’s 4x100m freestyle relay team clocked the third-fastest time in the heats to book their spot in Sunday’s final.
Comments