There’s no point in running, you have to start on time, as the old saying goes. That’s true very often, but not always. Canada’s gymnasts proved that a little on Saturday at the Olympic Games in Paris.
A difficult first outing on the horizontal bar was compensated by a crescendo performance that allowed the Canadian delegation to maintain hopes of participating in the final phase of the men’s gymnastics competition.
Zachary Clay, René Cournoyer, Félix Dolci, William Émard and Samuel Zakutney helped Canada collect 247,794 points, placing third in the overall standings after the first qualifying round, behind Great Britain (256,561) and the United States (253,229).
The best eight nations will be admitted to the team final.
At the individual level, Dolci (81.498) and Cournoyer (80.798) were the only Canadians to reach the final of the individual all-around competition.
In fencing, Canadian Fares Arfa almost reached the semifinals of the men’s individual sabre competition at the Paris Games on Saturday after clearly surprising the three-time reigning Olympic champion.
Arfa, who was playing his first matches in his career, lost 15-13 to South Korean Oh Sang-uk, who is ranked fourth in the world.
Earlier in the day, Arfa, 35e of the world rankings had defeated the three-time reigning Olympic champion Aron Szilagyi 15:8.
Rain disrupts tennis
Four Canadians, including two Quebecers, were expected to play on the outdoor courts of Roland-Garros on the first day of the Paris Games tennis tournament on Saturday, but the vagaries of Mother Nature ensured that no one played.
Laval’s Leylah Annie Fernandez was scheduled to play 9th-ranked Czech Karolina Muchova at 12:00 local time, but the match was ultimately postponed due to rain.
Fernandez was also scheduled to play in doubles with Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski on the same court. However, the match against the French tandem Clara Burel and Varvara Gracheva was postponed to Sunday, as was the duel between Ontario’s Bianca Andreescu and Denmark’s Clara Tauson, which was also scheduled for court 9.
In the men’s competition, Montreal’s Félix Auger-Aliassime will also have to wait before playing his first-round singles match against American Marcos Giron.
In addition, Summer McIntosh and the Canadian 4x100m free relay team reached the final in the swimming pool, kicking off the swimming events at the Paris Games.
McIntosh, a 17-year-old Toronto native, qualified for the 400-meter freestyle final by finishing second in her heat and fourth overall.
On the other hand, Quebec’s Mary-Sophie Harvey, Ontario’s Penny Oleksiak, New Brunswick’s Brooklyn Douthwright and British-Colombian Taylor Ruck signed for the sixth time in the 4x100m freestyle relay, while Albertans Finlay Knox and Yuri Kisil took fifth place with teammates Javier Acevedo and Josh Liendo from Toronto ahead of the final of the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay.
On Saturday evening, the finals of the men’s and women’s 4×100 m freestyle relay will be presented.
In women’s cycling, Quebec’s Olivia Baril finished 20the Time trial. She completed the 32.4 km distance in 43:03.58.
In the men’s race, Derek Gee stopped the clock over the same distance with 38:28.17 and took 20th placeehim too.
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