Singapore, Day Three: Canada Wins Five Medals in 45 Minutes
Canadian sporting history was made at the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore Monday, as Canada won its first medal – and first gold medal. A flurry of amazing performances saw five Canadian Youth Olympians reach the podium in a span of 45 minutes. What a night for Canada.
Wrestling: Dorothy Yeats (Montreal West) won gold in impressive fashion, pinning Korea’s Jinju Moon in 40 seconds to claim the women’s 70 kg title. “It sounds good,” she said of the title of Youth Olympic champion. “I’m very proud to be Canadian right now. Now I’m just going to keep training, train harder and keep trying to win.”
Swimming: Rachel Nicol (Lethbridge, Alta.) won gold in the 50-metre breaststroke. “I didn’t know if I would place top three, let along top one!” said Nicol. The swim team already had something to celebrate, as flag bearer Jeremy Bagshaw (Saanichton, B.C.) captured bronze in the 200-metre freestyle earlier in the night. Chad Bobrosky (Calgary) and the girls’ 4×100-metre individual medley team both narrowly missed adding to the medal tally, finishing fourth. It is Bobrosky’s second fourth-place finish in two days.
Fencing: Alexandre Lyssov (Richmond Hill, Ont,) found himself trailing Korean opponent Byeong Hun Na by several points in the second period of the bronze medal match of the epee draw before coming back and earning a 15-13 win in the final seconds. His performance made history: “I just wanted that medal so much, the first Olympic fencing medal for Canada,” Lyssov said.
Taekwondo: Melanie Phan (Port Coquitlam, B.C.) won bronze in the women -49 kg taekwondo tournament, yet she is not resting on her laurels: “I’m very happy with my result,” she said. “But I know I can do better.” With her competition ended, Phan still has plans for Singapore 2010: “I just want to take in the whole experience here.”
Results of Day Three:
Badminton
• Henry Pan – Group matches – L 2-0 (Evert Sukamata, INA)
• Tracy Wong – Group matches – L 2-0 (Misaki Matsumoto, JPN)
Fencing
• Alexandre Lyssov – Epee – Final – Bronze
Gymnastics
Robert Watson – Artistic – Qualification – 11th
Swimming
• Jeremy Bagshaw – 200 m freestyle – Final – Bronze (1:50.67)
• Chad Bobrosky – 200 m freestyle – final – 4th (1:50.86)
• Lindsay Delmar – 200 m butterfly – Final – 7th (2:15.01)
• Lauren Earp – 100 m Freestyle – Semifinal – 3rd (56.79)
• Thomas Jobin – 100 m butterfly – Preliminary heats – 7th (56.80)
• Rachel Nicol – 50 m breaststroke – Final – Gold (32.06)
• Rachel Nicol, Tera van Beilen, Lindsay Delmar, Lauren Earp – 4×100 m medley relay – Final – 4th (4:18.80)
Taekwondo
• Melanie Phan – Women’s -49 kg – Final – Bronze
Tennis
• Pavel Krainik – Singles – First Round – L 2-0 (Liang-Chi Huang, TPE)
• Katarena Paliivets – Singles – Consolation Round – W 0-0(WO) (Augustina Sol Eskenazi, ARG)
Triathlon
• Brook Powell – Triathlon – Final – DNF
Wrestling
• Dorothy Yeats – 70 km – Final – Gold
