Bold and bronze on Day 4
Canada had a bold, bronze Tuesday.
Within moments of each other, bronze medals came in Diving, Judo and Weightlifting as Canada boosted its medal count to four.
On the 10m synchro platform, Montreal’s Meaghan Benfeito and Laval, Que. Roseline Filion delivered the second bronze in that sport in London, just two days after teammates Jennifer Abel and Emilie Heymans did the same in 3m synchronized.
“We grew up together at the pool,” said Filion. “We learned how to work together. We knew what we had to work on in life and at the pool. I couldn’t ask for a better partner.”
Moments later, at ExCel, Antoine Valois-Fortier, 22, delivered Canada’s third bronze medal of the Games in the -81kg Judo class. It’s the best-ever result for Canada in this category. The Quebec City native defeated Travis Stevens of the U.S. for the podium victory.
At the same venue, weightlifter Christine Girard, 27, of Rouyn-Noranda, Que. collected Canada’s fourth bronze. In the 63kg weight class, she lifted 236 kg total to secure the podium spot and become the first Canadian woman to win an Olympic medal in the sport of Weightlifting.
SOCCER
On the St. James pitch in London, the women’s soccer team made an impressive comeback to tie Sweden 2-2 in round-robin play. Thanks to a pair of goals from Melissa Tancredi, the Canadian victory puts the squad at 1-1-1 and advances to the quarterfinals.
GYMNASTICS
On a historic day for gymnastics in Canada, the women’s artistic team had its best-ever Olympic result with a fifth place in London and a 170.804 total score. The performance evens the result Canada’s team delivered in Los Angeles in 1984, a boycotted Games.
ROWING
At Eton Dorney today the lightweight doubles skulls pair of Lindsay Jennerich and Patricia Obee advanced to the semifinals by clocking a 7:15.37 for a second-place performance in the repechage round for a spot in the semifinals.
“Obviously we wanted to go out and win the rep,” said Victoria, B.C.’s Jennerich. “The semi is going to be an extremely tough race, we we’ll have to race that semi like it’s a final.”
On the men’s side, Douglas Vandor and Morgan Jarvis advanced to semifinal rounds for their chance to row in the Final C race in men’s lightweight doubles skulls.
TENNIS
On the Wimbledon courts today Milos Raonic lost to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France in a thrilling marathon match 6-3, 3-6, 25-23. On the women’s side, Aleksandra Wozniak lost to Venus Williams of the U.S. 6-1, 6-3 and in doubles action Daniel Nestor and Vasek Pospisil lost to Janko Tipsarevic and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia 6-4, 6(5)-7(7), 11-9.
SWIMMING
At the pool Tuesday night Brent Hayden clocked a 48.21 in the semifinal to earn a spot in the final Wednesday night. Teammate Scott Dickens had a tough semifinal with a 2:11.71 in the 200m breaststroke finishing 16th. During heats, he set a new personal best time of 2:10.95, bettering his previous mark by .45 seconds. In the women’s 200m Fly, Audrey Lacroix stopped the clock at 2:08.00 for a 12th overall finish in her semifinal.
EQUESTRIAN
In Equestrian Tuesday, Jessica Phoenix advanced to the final in Eventing with a score of 71.20 as Canada rounded out the field in the team event.
SAILING
On the water at the Weymouth and Portland venue, Zac Plavsic sits in eighth place after his eighth race in the men’s RS:X event. On the women’s side, Nikola Girke sits in ninth spot in the same preliminary event after Race 2. Sailing continues Wednesday.
