Weekend Roundup: Paquet’s first podium on top triathlon circuit, Canadian sprinters shine in Botswana
It was a breakthrough weekend for a few Canadian athletes.
Charles Paquet became just the second Canadian man to ever reach the podium on triathlon’s top international circuit. Jerome Blake and Andre De Grasse did something that no Canadian men have done in almost three decades.
Meanwhile, Kadriana and Colton Lott are off to a hot start at the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship and there were some strong results in cycling, both on the track and on the road.
Here’s a quick look back at what you might have missed.
Triathlon: Paquet earns first WTCS podium
Charles Paquet stood on a World Triathlon Championship Series podium for the first time when he finished third at the season opener in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on Saturday.
The 29-year-old put together a complete race, capped off by a dramatic sprint finish, to achieve the big career breakthrough. Paquet finished in 1:43:41, behind only gold medallist Vasco Vilaca of Portugal (1:43:33) and runner-up Henry Graf of Germany (1:43:37).
“It’s amazing to start the season like this,” said Paquet. “Last year I was disappointed not to podium having been close a few times, so it’s a great feeling. With Abu Dhabi cancelled I had a good training block in Girona, good volume and now I’m looking ahead of WTCS Alghero.”
Paquet was in 12th place coming out of the 1.5km swim. He maintained composure throughout the 40km bike leg and found himself in eighth place, 27 seconds back of the leaders, coming out of the second transition to start the 10km run. He quickly closed the gap and got into a lead group of six athletes, which gradually ended up in a shoulder-to-shoulder race between Paquet, Vilaca, and Graf.
Paquet is just the second Canadian man to ever reach a WTCS podium. Tyler Mislawchuk won bronze in Montreal in 2019. Paquet’s previous best on the circuit was a pair of fifth-place finishes.
Athletics: Canadians triumph in Africa
Ethan Katzberg and Camryn Rogers won the hammer throw events at the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi, Kenya on Friday. Katzberg threw 82.43m to set the world-leading mark for the year in the men’s hammer throw. Rogers threw 80.03m to set a meet record. It’s the second time this season she’s surpassed the 80-metre mark, following her North American record 81.13m on April 2.
On Sunday, Jerome Blake ran a personal best 9.93 seconds to win the men’s 100m at the Botswana Golden Grand Prix. Andre De Grasse was just behind him, finishing in 9.95 seconds. It was just the third time ever that two Canadian men ran sub-10 seconds in the same wind legal race and not since Donovan Bailey and Bruny Surin did it twice in the 1990s.
De Grasse followed up by winning the men’s 200m in 19.84 seconds. That’s his best time in that event since 2023. Aaron Brown finished second in 20.07 seconds. All three men, along with their fellow Olympic gold medallist Brendan Rodney, are set to compete at the World Relays in Gabarone, Botswana this coming weekend.
Audrey Leduc was also at the Botswana Golden Grand Prix and finished third in the women’s 100m in 11.10 seconds.
Curling: Canada 4-0 to start World Mixed Doubles Championship
The married duo of Kadriana and Colton Lott are undefeated through the first three days of competition at the 2026 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship in Geneva, Switzerland. That puts them atop Group B with three days of round robin play remaining.
The Canadians opened with a 6-4 win over Korea on Saturday. They won twice on Sunday, defeating Finland 10-4 and the United States 7-3. On Monday they got a 6-5 win in an extra end over Italy.
Track Cycling: Genest continues sprint success
For the second straight week on the UCI Track World Cup circuit, Lauriane Genest finished fourth in the women’s sprint, this time in Nilai, Malaysia. Genest lost the bronze medal matchup to China’s Yuan Liying on Saturday., but matched her career best World Cup result in the sprint event.
In the women’s keirin on Sunday, Genest appeared to have won the bronze medal, but she was relegated “for entering the sprinter’s lane when the opponent was already there” and ended up ranked sixth in the final.
Road Cycling: Two Canadians in top 10 of Liège-Bastogne-Liège
Isabella Holmgren was the top Canadian in the famed Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes one-day race in Belgium, finishing sixth in 4 hours 12 minutes 10 seconds. That put her eight seconds ahead of Canada’s reigning world champion of the women’s road race, Magdeleine Vallières.
Just four days earlier, Vallières had placed sixth while Holmgren was ninth in La Flèche Wallonne Femmes.
