Sport Shorts: Flame Marks Approach of Youth Olympic Games
Flame Reaches Singapore: The Olympic Flame has reached Singapore one week before the inaugural Youth Olympic Games kick off. The Flame touched five continents on its two-week journey from Olympia, Greece to Singapore, which will host this new event. In fact, it is the final international Olympic torch relay, as all future Olympic Games will be preceded by relays only within the host country.
The Flame is in the midst of a six-day relay through Singapore, ending Friday in the Marina Bay Promenade. On Saturday, the Games begin and Canada’s team of 60 Youth Olympians parade into an experience of a lifetime. About 3,600 athletes between 14 and 18 years of age will compete in 26 sports, as well as the Culture and Education Program.
Golden Water Skier: Ryan Dodd (Olds, Alta.) took home a gold medal in the jump event at a Malibu Open water skiing competition on the weekend. World champion Whitney McClintock (Cambridge, Ont.) captured bronze in women’s slalom.
Fencers in San José: Canadian fencers captured nine medals at the Pan American Championships in San José, Costa Rica. Canada’s one gold, five silver and three bronze medals were second only to the United States’ 13 medals, and showed there is plenty of medal potential for the Olympic Games two years away. The gold medal came courtesy of Vincent Couturier in the sabre event. In other individual efforts, Monica Peterson won silver in foil, Sandra Sassine won silver in sabre, Vincent Pelletier took bronze in epee while both Philippe Beaudry and Nicolas Mayer captured bronze medals in sabre. Three more medals came in team events.
Canada Takes Nations Cup: With Australia, Brazil and France its competitors at the Nations Cup, Canadian swimmers won the two-day event in Victoria. Canada’s 339 total points edged Australia’s 329, a country with a strong swimming program. Highlights included gold medals by Jeremy Bagshaw (Victoria) in 200-metre freestyle, Haylee Johnson (Vancouver) in 200-metre breaststroke and the women’s 4×50-metre freestyle relay. Bagshaw is Canada’s flag bearer for the 2010 Youth Olympic Games. The relay gold set a new Canadian record. For full results visit .
Tobin Takes Bronze: Quebec City’s Simon Tobin makes another appearance in Sport Shorts after winning bronze in 34 km open water swim on Saturday. He finished the Traversee du lac Memphremagog in just over seven-and-a-half hours. Teammate Xavier Desharnais (Sherbrooke, Que.) finished in fifth spot.
Lopes-Schliep Takes Silver: Priscilla Lopes-Schliep (Whitby, Ont.) snared a silver medal in the 100-metre hurdles last Friday at the Stockholm Diamond League track and field meet.
Rowers Shine in St. Catharines: Royal Canadian Henley Regatta is one of Canada’s most prestigious regattas, and its 128th incarnation featured most of Canada’s best rowers. Both the men’s and women’s eights took gold medals in front of great crowds in St. Catharines, Ont. Ashley Brzozowicz (Toronto) and Krista Guloien (Port Moody, B.C.) won the pairs event while Victoria’s Malcolm Howard won his singles race. Rounding out the wins were the lightweight women’s quad and the lightweight women’s double, which featured Tracy Cameron (Shubenacadie, N.S.) and Lindsay Jennerich (Victoria).
