Olympic Roundup: Canada sweeps U.S. in men’s volleyball upset

Canada’s men’s volleyball team may have lulled the competition in to a false sense of confidence.

The Canadians defeated the United States 3-0 in the men’s volleyball opener for both teams Sunday at the Rio Games. This is Canadian team’s first Olympic appearance since the 1992 Barcelona Games.

The 12th-ranked Canadians converted their first match point for a 25-23, 25-17, 25-23 upset win over the No. 5 Americans.

The United States made 10 service faults in the opening game. Canada closed out the second set on a 10-2 run with Nick Hoag of Sherbrooke, Que., sealing it with an ace.

Canada will continue preliminary round play Tuesday against top-ranked Brazil.

DIVING

Canadian divers Jennifer Abel and Pamela Ware opened the Rio Olympics with a gut-wrenching result in the women’s three-metre synchronized event.

The duo finished fourth, less than one point behind bronze medallists Maddison Keeney and Anabelle Smith of Australia. Abel, from Laval Que., and Ware of Greenfield Park, Que., were the silver medallists at last year’s world championship. Abel also captured bronze in the event at the London Games four years ago with the now-retired Emilie Heymans.

“We felt good, we had good practices,” Abel said. “Unfortunately, our competition wasn’t at the same level as our performance in training. It’s unfortunate because we missed the podium by less than one point.

“At the same time, we have to look at it from the positive side. Yes, we’re capable of doing much better, yes we have another four years ahead of us. These are also the first games for Pamela (Ware), so we have to underline that.”

RUGBY

Great Britain handed Canada’s women’s rugby team a wakeup call. Canada was shut out by Great Britain 22-0 to wrap up pool play at the Rio Olympics. The Canadians had already secured their spot in quarter-finals with routs of Japan and Brazil on Day 1, outscoring their opponents by a combined 83-0.

Canada rebounded to defeat France 15-5 in the quarter-finals. Canada will face Australia, the tournament’s No. 1 seed, on Monday in the semifinal.

SWIMMING

Brittany MacLean of Mississauga, Ont. set a Canadian record to advance to the women’s 400-metre freestyle final. She finished her heat in four minutes 3.43 seconds to move on to the event’s final later tonight.

ROWING

High winds continued to plague the Olympic rowing competition as racing was called off for the day due to turbulent water. Canada was to have four boats competing in heats and repechage rounds.

JUDO

Canadian judoka Antoine Bouchard lost to Japan’s Masashi Ebinuma in the 66-kilogram bronze-medal match at the Rio Olympics.

The 21-year-old Bouchard had to beat Mongolia’s Tumurkhuleg Davaadorj in a repechage to advance to the third-place bout after losing his quarter-final to Slovenia’s Adrian Gomboc earlier in the day. Bouchard took the repechage over Davaadorj by waza-ari.

The Jonquiere, Que., native started his day with three straight wins, including a stunning victory in the round of 32 over Russia’s Mikhail Puliaev, a silver medallist at the 2014 and 2015 world championships.

BEACH VOLLEYBALL
Heather Bansley, Waterdown, Ont., and Sarah Pavan, Kitchener, Ont., won their preliminary-round match 2-0 over Sophie van Gestel and Jantine van der Vlist of the Netherlands.

CANOE/KAYAK

Men’s C1 slalom, Cameron Smedley of Dunrobin, Ont., placed 15th overall in qualfying with a top score of 104.83, just missing a berth in the final by 2.05.

Men’s K-1 slalom, Michael Tayler, Ottawa, was ranked 16th in qualifying (93.47), and failed to advance by 0.18 points.

CYCLING

Women’s road race, Karol-Ann Canuel, Gatineau, Que., finished 25th in three hours, 56 minutes and 34 seconds; Leah Kirchmann of Winnipeg was 38th (4:01:29); Tara Whitten, Calgary, did not finish.

DIVING

Women’s three-metre synchronized springboard, Jennifer Abel, Laval, Que., and Pamela Ware, Greenfield Park, Que., placed fourth in the event with 298.32 points.

EQUESTRIAN (EVENING)

Individual Dressage, Rebecca Howard, Marlborough, U.K.. and Riddle Master, posted a score of 49.40; Colleen Loach, Dunham, Que. (Qorry Blue d’Argouges), had 56.50 points.

Team Dressage,Canada stands 12th overall after the second day of competition with 150.80 points.

FENCING

Men’s Individual Foil, Maximilien Van Haaster, Montreal, won his opening match 15-7 over Antonio Leal of Venezuela, but was eliminated with a 15-4 second-round loss to Gerek Meinhardt of the U.S.

JUDO

Men’s – 66 kilogram class, Antoine Bouchard, Jonquiere, Que., won his elimination-round match 100-0 over Raymond Ovinou of Papua New Guinea by Uchi-Mata; defeated Mikael Puliaev of Russia Os1-1s1 and Imas Bassou of Morocco, 1s2-Os3; lost 100s2-Os1 in the quarter-finals to Adrian Gomboc of Slovenia; won his repechage 10s3-0s1 over Tumurkhuleg Davaadorj of Mongolia and lost to Masashi Ebinuma of Japan, 101s1-0 in a bronze medal match.

Women’s -52 kilograms _ Ecaterina Guica, La Prairie, Que., lost in the elimination round to Natalia KLuziutina of Russia, 2-Os1.

ROWING

Men’s lightweight fours, Brendan Hodge, South Delta, B.C.; Maxwell Lattimer, Delta, B.C.; Nicolas Pratt, Kingston, Ont.; and Eric Woelfl, St. Catharines, Ont., and men’s quad sculls – Julien Bahain, Sherbrooke, Que.; Will Dean, Kelowna, B.C.; Rob Gibson, Kingston, Ont.; and Pascal Lussier, St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., had their repechage races cancelled due to high winds.

RUGBY SEVENS
Women – Canada lost their final preliminary-round match 22-0 to Britain, then defeated France 15-5 in the quarter-finals. They advance to Monday’s semifinal against Australia.

SHOOTING

Women’s Trap, Cynthia Meyer, Bowen Island, B.C., placed seventh in qualifying with 67 points, did not advance to the semifinal round.
Women’s 10-metre air pistol, Lynda Kiejko, Calgary, was 38th in qualifying (374), did not advance.

SWIMMING

Women’s 100 backstroke, Kylie Masse of LaSalle, Ont., had the third-best overall time in qualifying (59.07); Dominique Bouchard, North Bay, Ont., was 12th overall (1:00.18) _ both advanced to Sunday night’s semifinal round.

Women’s 100 breaststroke, Rachel Nicol, Lethbridge, Alta., advanced to the Sunday night’s semifinals after placing 11th in qualifying (1:06.85), then earned a berth in the final with the eighth-best time (1:06.73); Kierra Smith, Kelowna, B.C., was 19th (1:07.41), did not advance.

Women’s 100 butterfly, Penny Oleksiak, Toronto, won the silver medal (57.10).

Women’s 400 freestyle, Brittany MacLean, Toronto, was the fifth-fastest in qualifying (4:03.43) and was fifth in the final (4:04.69); Emily Overholt, West Vancouver, B.C., was 25th (4:16:24) and did not advance.

Men’s 100 backstroke, Javier Acevedo, Toronto, missed out on the semifinals by 0.12 seconds after placing 17th in qualifyng (54.11).

Men’s 4×100 freestyle relay, Santo Condorelli, Kenora, Ont.; Yuri Kisil, Calgary; Markus Thormeyer, Tsawwassen, B.C.; and Markus Thormeyer, Tsawwassen, B.C., will race in tonight’s final after placing fifth in qualifying (3:14.06).

TABLE TENNIS

Men – Eugene Wang, Ottawa, def. Ahmet Li, Turkey, 4-0.

TENNIS

Women’s doubles Eugenie Bouchard, Westmount, Que., and Gabriela Dabrowski, Ottawa, won their opener over Klaudia Jans-Ignacik and Paula Kania of Poland, 6-4, 5-7, 6-3.

Men’s doubles, Daniel Nestor, Toronto; Vasek Pospisil, Vernon, B.C., def. Marcus Daniell and Michael Venus, Australia, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (6).

VOLLEYBALL

Men – Canada opened the tournament by defeating the United States, 3-0 (25-23, 25-17, 25-23).

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