2015 Year in Review Part II: Canada’s success at world championships
Feature photo: Andre De Grasse at Beijing 2015
There were 18 medals (3 gold, 5 silver, 10 bronze) won in summer Olympic events and 21 medals (3 gold, 11 silver, 7 bronze) won in winter Olympic events this calendar year.
Part I of the Year in Review looked at world championship success from January to June. Here are the highlights from July to the end of 2015:
July
FINA World Aquatics Championships – Diving
Fresh off their Pan Am Games medals, the FAB IV flew to Kazan, Russia where they got back on the podium for the second straight world championships. Jennifer Abel and Pamela Ware won silver in 3m synchro while Meaghan Benfeito and Roseline Filion did the same in the 10m synchro. The Canadian team also won a pair of silvers in the mixed 3m synchro and 10m synchro events.
August
FINA World Aquatics Championships – Swimming
Canada’s most decorated world championship swimmer, Ryan Cochrane brought his career medal total to eight with bronze medals in the 400m freestyle and 1500m freestyle. While it was his first career podium in the shorter distance, he made it four in a row in the pool’s longest event.
The breakout star of the Canadian team was Emily Overholt, who after her emotional roller coaster of a Pan Am Games, captured 400m individual medley bronze in her world championship debut.
IAAF World Athletics Championships
Derek Drouin celebrates a clearance in the high jump at the IAAF World Championships in Athletics on August 30, 2015.
Eight medals made this Canada’s most successful athletics world championships ever.
Shawn Barber followed up his Pan Am victory and national record mark with a defeat of the world record holder to win pole vault gold.
Derek Drouin emerged from a thrilling jump off in the high jump with a gold medal of his own.
Canada’s combined eventers, Damian Warner and Brianne Theisen-Eaton, each won silver in the decathlon and heptathlon, respectively. Theisen-Eaton ended the season as the top-scoring heptathlete with her 6808 points from the Hypo-Meeting in Götzis, Austria in May.
Melissa Bishop waits for her official time and placing following the IAAF World Championships in Athletics 800m semifinals on August 27, 2015 in Beijing, China.
Melissa Bishop broke through African and European dominance to win silver in the 800m.
Andre De Grasse was a double bronze medallist at his first world championships, tying for third in the 100m and helping the 4x100m relay team of Aaron Brown, Brendon Rodney and Justyn Warner to a second straight podium.
Ben Thorne won Canada’s first ever world championship race walk medal with his bronze in the 20km event.
More: Shawn Barber becomes pole vault world champion
More: Drouin wins ‘jump off’ to take gold in Beijing
More: Warner wins world champs decathlon silver medal
More: Theisen-Eaton strikes world silver in heptathlon
More: Bishop wins world 800m silver in Beijing
More: De Grasse delivers bronze in stacked 100m field
More: Canada wins 4x100m relay bronze at worlds
More: Thorne wins world bronze with tactical race
ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships
Mark de Jonge in Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games action at the International Flatwater Centre in Welland, Ontario.
Mark de Jonge is the man to beat in the shortest kayak event, the K-1 200m, after winning his second straight world title. He’s now been on the podium at the biggest event of the year dating back to his bronze at London 2012.
IJF World Judo Championships
As Canada’s top judoka, ranked third in the world in his weight class, Olympic bronze medallist Antoine Valois-Fortier won his second straight world championship medal, this one a bronze in the 81kg division.
September
FISA World Rowing Championships
Canada’s women’s eight crew show their 2015 World Rowing Championships bronze medals (Photo: Rowing Canada).
The women’s eight crew of Lisa Roman, Cristy Nurse, Jennifer Martins, Ashley Brzozowicz, Christine Roper, Susanne Grainger, Natalie Mastracci, Lauren Wilkinson, and coxswain Lesley Thompson-Willie captured the bronze medal to maintain a Canadian podium streak in the event dating back to 2010. For Thompson-Willie, it was the 10th world championship medal of her long and illustrious career. The event was also one of six in which Canada earned Olympic berths for Rio 2016.
United World Wrestling Championships
Genevieve Morrison won a bronze medal in the 48kg weight class, her only loss coming in the semifinals to Japan’s Eri Tosaka who went on to win her third straight world title. It was one of two Olympic berths Canada secured at the competition.
October
FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships
Ellie Black competes in the uneven bars at the world artistic gymnastics championship all-around finals in Glasgow on October 29, 2015.
Ellie Black posted the best ever result by a Canadian gymnast in the individual all-around with her seventh place finish in Glasgow and helped Canada qualify a full team of five for Rio 2016.
More: Another worlds, another best ever result for Black
More: Canadian gymnasts shine at world championships
November
FIG Trampoline World Championships
Rosie MacLennan narrowly missed the podium with her fourth place finish but locked up an Olympic berth for Canada at Rio 2016.
