Weekend Roundup: Team Canada celebrates rising stars
Team Canada dominated this weekend’s action from world-class tennis matches, to a Crystal Globe for Megan Oldham, a Nation’s Cup, a second in a PGA Tour Championship, a win streak in curling and podium finishes in water polo, judo, and athletics.
Check out the details of your rising Team Canada athletes below.
Tennis
After making it to the semi-finals, Canada’s Denis Shapovalov is now ranked 20th in the world, which marks his first time in the top 20. He moved up three spots, where Félix Auger-Aliassime is now 33rd in the world after moving up 24 spots.
Bianca Andreescu had to retire from the Miami Open due to a right shoulder injury. Even though her win streak was stopped at 10 matches, the 18-year-old still moves up one spot to No. 23. Notably, Andreescru started 2019 at No. 152.
Athletics
Team Canada ran to gold in the 4×100 in the Florida Relays over the weekend. The team of Gavin Smellie, Aaron Kingsley Brown, Brendon Rodney, and Andre De Grasse maintained an edge over their competitors to come out on top.
Slopestyle
READ: Megan Oldham wins first World Cup gold and slopestyle Crystal Globe
Megan Oldham finished the slopestyle season on top of the podium with her first World Cup gold and the slopestyle Crystal Globe.
With the help of her second run, the 18-year old was able to pull off gold with 84.51 points. Tess Ledeux from France finished in second with 77.98 points, and Silvia Bertagna from Italy secured bronze with 76.11 points. Oldham previously won a silver and a bronze medal this season, which is her first year in the World Cup circuit.
Oldham won the 2019 Slopestyle Crystal Globe after finishing atop the FIS standings. She earned 281 points, which was only one point over Sarah Hoefflin from Switzerland. Team Canada finished with the ultimate achievement of receiving the Nations Cup as the overall winner with 6266 points. Max Moffatt also finished second overall in the slopestyle overall standings.
Curling
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson
Team Koe is 4-0 after their first weekend at the World Men’s Curling Championship. The team of Kevin Koe, B.J. Neufeld, Colton Flasch and Ben Hebert defeated Italy and China on day two of the tournament in Lethbridge, Alberta.
The team will continue to fight for their first-place position this week. For the full broadcast schedule, click here.
Water Polo
The Men’s Water Polo team claimed bronze during the Water Polo Intercontinental Cup after defeating Kazakhstan 9-4. Australia beat Japan 10-8 in the final.
With an outstanding performance, Canada’s Nicolas Constantin-Bicari was named Tournament MVP. He earned himself four goals in the final, and continued to lead Canada offensively and defensively throughout the tournament.
The Women’s Water Polo team was just short of the podium, and earned fourth place after their match against China.
Since both the Men’s and Women’s teams successfully made it to the Intercontinental Cup semifinals, Team Canada has qualified for the FINA World League Super Final in June, 2019.
Golf
During the Corales Championship at the PGA Tour event in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, Mackenzie Hughes was tied for second with a -17 alongside America’s Chris Stroud. Graeme McDowell had a one-stroke victory to take first place. This is one of the best finishes of Hughe’s career. He is also the fourth Canadian this season to take a home a silver medal alongside Adam Hadwin, Corey Conners, and Roger Sloan.
Judo
Antoine Valois-Fortier won bronze during the -81 kg judo Grand Prix event in Tbilisi. He defeated No. 13 Portuguese Anri Egutidze to take the podium.
This is the 2012 Olympic bronze medallist’s first podium after returning from a back injury that he has been struggling with since early 2018.
