Canada Basketball-Muad Issa/AP Photo-Charlie Riedel/Bence Vekassy-ICF-CanoeKayak Canada
There are still a few days of competition left at the IAAF World Championships and the Canadians could well increase their harvest. A Canadian all-star men’s basketball team competes in the FIBA Basketball World Cup in hopes of qualifying for the Paris 2024 Olympic tournament.
Canoe and sprint kayak athletes are also chasing Olympic qualifying odds for the country at the ICF World Championships, which concludes on Sunday, as Brooke Henderson looks to return to the front runners in the opener of the tournament. She will play at home.
Here’s a look at what you’ll want to see this weekend:
athletics
At the IAAF World Championships in Budapest it has been the hammer throw competitions that have stolen the show from Canada, with Ethan Katzberg and Camryn Rogers taking home the gold medals. But Canada could well add more medals to its haul in the coming days.
READ: 5 Things You Should Know About Ethan Katzberg, World Hammer Throw Champion
Canadian decathlon specialists Pierce LePage and Damian Warner begin their first day of competition on Friday. The two-day event ends on Saturday. Both athletes are aiming for a podium finish. Warner is, of course, the reigning Olympic champion, and he has also won three World Championships medals. LePage is one of Canada’s medalists last year, having won a silver medal when Warner retired with a hamstring injury.
The women’s marathon starts at 7 a.m. local time in Hungary. Canada is represented by Natasha Wodak and Sasha Gollish. Wodak holds the Canadian marathon record with a time of 2:23:12, a mark set at the Berlin Marathon in September 2022.
The men’s 800m final will take place later on Saturday. Marco Arop flew through the heats (where he had time to slow down and smack a competitor) and clocked a time of 1:44.02, which puts him fourth after the semifinals.
Canada’s men’s 4x100m relay takes to the track for Friday’s heats and will attempt to qualify for Saturday’s final. Jerome Blake, Aaron Brown, Andre De Grasse and Brendon Rodney are the defending champions of last year’s World Championships, as well as the Tokyo 2020 silver medalists in this event. On Thursday, in the men’s 200m semifinals, De Grasse is the only Canadian to have qualified for the final, which will be held on Friday.
Moh Ahmed will compete in the men’s 5000m on Sunday. He set a time of 13:33.16 minutes in the lead-up, demonstrating strategy in the race. Ahmed had won the silver medal in Tokyo 2020 over this distance.
The men’s marathon takes place on Sunday, the last day of the championship. Canada is represented by Rory Linkletter, Ben Preisner and Justin Kent. Linkletter set a personal best of 2:10:24 set at last year’s World Championships in Eugene, Oregon. Preisner has a personal best of 2:10:17. Kent has a personal best of 2:13:07.
basketball
The FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 begins this Friday, hosted by the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia. Held every four years, the major men’s basketball event also serves as a qualifier for the Paris 2024 Olympic tournament in 2024.
READ: Men’s basketball stars aim for breakthrough at FIBA Basketball World Cup
Canada is currently ranked 15th in the world and is in Group H where they meet France (5th), Latvia (29th) and Lebanon (43rd).
Team Canada got off to a strong start as they take on France at the start of the tournament on Friday, August 25 at 9:30am ET. Next up are the games against Lebanon on Sunday, August 27 at 5:45pm ET and against Latvia on Tuesday, August 29 at 9:30am ET. All these games take place in Jakarta, Indonesia.
With several NBA players on the roster including Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, RJ Barrett, Luguentz Dort, Dillon Brooks, Kelly Olynyk, Dwight Powell and Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Team Canada could surprise on the international stage.
To advance to the second round of the tournament, which runs from August 31 to September 4, Canada must finish in the top two teams in their group. New groups will then be formed and the formations will compete against two other teams while maintaining their record from the first round. The top two teams from each of these second-round groups advance to the playoffs.
Canada can qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics by finishing in the top two teams in the Americas region at this 2023 World Cup.
Speed canoe kayak
The 2023 ICF Canoe Kayak Sprint World Championships are in full swing in Duisburg, Germany. In addition to world titles, there are also Olympic qualifying odds for Paris 2024 at stake.
Katie Vincent, Tokyo 2020 bronze medalist in the women’s C-2 500m race with Laurence Vincent Lapointe, now retired, will be looking to reach a qualifying quota for the same event with new teammate Sloan MacKenzie. They had finished sixth at the 2022 World Championships, while Vincent had won three gold medals and one bronze medal, a harvest achieved in competitions that were not on the Olympic program.
In the men’s event, Craig Spence and Alix Plomteux compete in the C-2 500m. To give Canada a qualifying quota for this distance, Canadian boats must finish in the top eight in Duisburg. The final of the women’s competitions is scheduled for Saturday, that of the men’s competitions on Sunday.
Of the other canoeing events in the Olympic program, Connor Fitzpatrick will compete in the men’s C-1 1000m event, with the finals taking place on Saturday morning. Sophia Jensen is in the women’s C-1 200 and will try to reach the final on Friday. In both disciplines, canoeists must finish in the top five to give the country an Olympic qualifying quota.
In the kayak competitions, Michelle Russell will represent Canada in the women’s K-1 500m event and Cameron Low in the men’s K-1 1000m event, two events in which the top six will have an Olympic qualifying quota for get their land. The finale of these events is scheduled for Saturday.
In the women’s and men’s K-2 500m events, the top six countries will receive a qualifying quota. Courtney Stott and Madeline Schmidt will be the Canadians in action, while Pierre-Luc Poulin and Simon McTavish will represent the men. The final of these events will be held on Sunday.
Stott, Natalie Davison, Riley Melanson and Toshka Besharah-Hrebacka compete in the women’s K-4 500m race. Laurent Lavigne, Nicholas Matveev, McTavish and Poulin make up the men’s K-4 500m team. In these two events, when four continents are represented, the Olympic qualifying quotas are allocated to the country of the first ten boats. These finals take place on Friday.
female golf
The Canadian Women’s Golf Open is taking place this weekend in Vancouver, British Columbia at Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club.
Fifteen Canadians are taking part in the tournament, including Brooke Henderson, who credits her 2018 win as one of the highlights of her career. At the age of 25, Henderson has won 13 tournaments on the LGPA circuit but only one on Canadian soil.
READ: Brooke Henderson’s thirteen LPGA titles, a Canadian record
“Every tournament I play in, I think in that moment of all the good things that have happened and everything that has worked. That’s what we strive for and that’s what I strive for every day,” Henderson said of his 2018 win. But knowing that I can do it and I can do it here in Canada was amazing. I know defending the title is probably the hardest part but I appreciate everyone here, the atmosphere makes me a little calmer and a little more comfortable playing. I’m in a good mood and so happy to have won and I really want to do it again. »
Nine of the top ten golfers in the world rankings take part in the tournament.
male golf
Nick Taylor and Corey Connors compete in the PGA Tour Championship held at the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia. This year’s tournament is reserved for the top 30 golfers on the tour.
Taylor won the Canadian Open in June with a 72-foot eagle, marking the first win by a Canadian at the National Open since 1954.
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