Paris 2024 Olympics Day 9: Katzberg wins hammer throw gold, Sanford takes boxing bronze
Team Canada has tied its record by winning at least one medal for the ninth day in a row.
Canada matched a national record at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on Sunday, winning at least one medal for the ninth day in a row, equalling the country’s previous longest streaks from the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics and Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
Entering Paris as the reigning world champion and Pan Am Games champion, Ethan Katzberg was the favourite to win gold in the men’s hammer throw event in Paris, and he delivered. Katzberg shot to the top of the standings with a first throw of 84.12 metres and never fell from that position, as none of the other competitors would get over 80. It was the largest margin of victory, 4.15m, in men’s hammer throw since the 1920 Games in Antwerp.
Katzberg, 22, is the youngest Olympic champion ever in this event, and his title is the first Olympic gold medal in any throwing event for Team Canada in 120 years. Fellow Canadian Rowan Hamilton finished ninth, with a best throw of 76.59m.
Earlier on Sunday, reigning world champion Camryn Rogers advanced to the women’s hammer throw final on Tuesday with a throw of 74.69m, the second-highest score of the qualification round.
Canada’s other medal of the day came in boxing, as Wyatt Sanford got Canada onto the podium in that sport for the first time in 28 years.
Sanford competed in the semifinal of the men’s 63.5kg event against Rio 2016 silver medallist (and home crowd favourite) Sofiane Oumiha of France. Sanford lost by judges decision, automatically clinching a bronze medal. There are no bronze medal bouts in Olympic boxing, so both of the losing semifinalists take home some hardware.
The 25-year-old from Kennetcook, Nova Scotia had over 1,000 people cheering him on in his home province, and is the first Canadian to reach the podium since David Defiagbon took silver in the men’s heavyweight competition at Atlanta 1996.
For the first time in his Olympic career, Andre De Grasse was unable to advance to the final and win a medal in one of his events. He finished fifth in his 100m semifinal heat with a season-best time of 9.98 seconds — but it still wasn’t enough. The final will go down in history, won by American star Noah Lyles in what was the first race in history where eight men broke 10 seconds in a wind-legal race.
In the women’s 200m first round, Audrey Leduc finished third in her heat to advance to the semifinals, while Jacqueline Madogo will have to go through a repechage round after finishing fourth in hers. Christopher Morales-Williams advanced to the semifinals of the men’s 400m with a second-place finish in his first round heat. In the women’s 400m hurdles, Savannah Sutherland finished third in her heat to reach the semifinals of that event, and in the men’s 110m hurdles, Craig Thorne will run in the repechage round after finishing seventh in his first round race.
Charles Philibert-Thiboutot was eliminated in the men’s 1500m semifinals with an 11th-place finish in his heat, while Ceili McCabe and Regan Yee were eliminated in the women’s 3000m steeplechase preliminary round.
Swimming action wrapped up on Sunday, bringing to a close a historic week for the sport in this country.
Canada had teams competing in the men’s and women’s 4x100m mixed relays. Blake Tierney, Finlay Knox, Ilya Kharun and Josh Liendo finished in fifth place in the men’s event, while the women finished fourth with a team of Kylie Masse, Sophie Angus, Maggie Mac Neil and Summer McIntosh.
Canadians combined for eight medals in the pool — three golds, two silvers, and three bronze. McIntosh won four of them, the three golds and one silver, in one of the greatest Olympics ever for a Canadian athlete if not the very best.
The Canadian women’s basketball team were eliminated from their tournament on Sunday, defeated 79-70 by Nigeria in the final game of the group stage. Canada lost all three of their matches and finished bottom of Group A.
Canada’s women’s water polo team lost as well, 20-11 to the Netherlands, but will advance to the quarterfinals of the competition with a fourth-place finish in Group A.
Canada’s men’s foil fencing team picked up its best ever Olympic result, finishing seventh. Canada lost to Japan in the table of eight, before losing to China in their first classification match. They bounced back with a 45-38 win over Egypt in their final placement match.
Canada was represented by Alison Jackson and Olivia Baril in the women’s cycling road race, finishing 19th and 44th, respectively.
Corey Conners picked up Canada’s best result in men’s golf since it returned to the Olympic program in 2016, finishing tied for ninth place after Sunday’s fourth round with a final score of 12 under par. Nick Taylor finished tied for 30th at four under par after four rounds.
Sarah Douglas sits in 11th place in the women’s ILCA 6 sailing preliminary round after competing in the seventh and eighth races out of ten on Sunday, finishing 13th in race seven and ninth in race eight. She needs to be in the top ten overall after the final two races on Monday in order to qualify for the medal race. Emily Bugeja sits in 20th place after the first four races of the women’s Formula Kite sailing event. In the first four races on Sunday, Bugeja finished 19th in the first two, and 18th in the third and fourth races.
Also on the water, Lois Betteridge and Alex Baldoni competed in the first round of the inaugural kayak cross competitions. Betteridge was eliminated after finishing third in her first heat of the women’s event, while Baldoni finished fourth in his heat in the men’s event and his Olympics came to an end as well.
Eric Peters lost to Italy’s Mauro Nespoli in the 1/8 round of the men’s individual recurve archery event, unable to reach the medal rounds.
What’s happening on Day 10?
Canada will look to win a medal for a tenth day in a row to begin Paris 2024 on Monday, and will have a couple chances to do so.
Below are all of the Canadian athletes competing on Monday at the Olympic Games. Click here for CBC’s guide on when and where to watch every event.
Canada will play for a medal on Monday in women’s 3x3 basketball, but what colour that medal will be remains to be determined. Canada take on Germany in the semifinal, with the winner moving on to play either Spain or the United States in the gold medal match later that day. The two defeated teams will play for bronze.
Track cycling gets underway on Monday, with a powerful Canadian team competing for a medal. Kelsey Mitchell, Lauriane Genest, Sarah Orban will compete in the women’s team sprint, starting in the qualification round before the semifinals and medal races later in the day if they can advance. This group won the silver medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, and Mitchell is the defending Olympic champion in the individual sprint event.
Canadian athletes competing in non-medal events on day 10:
Andre De Grasse, Aaron Brown and Brendon Rodney will race in the first round of the men’s 200m event, while Audrey Leduc will race in the women’s 200m semifinals — with Jacqueline Madogo looking to join her when she completes in the repechage round earlier in the day. Also on the track, Zoe Sherar and Lauren Gale will compete in the first round of the women’s 400m, while Jean-Simon Desgagnés races in the first round of the men’s 3000m steeplechase. Alysha Newman and Anicka Newell compete in the qualification round of the women’s pole vault event.
In track cycling, Nick Wammes, James Hedgcock, and Tyler Rorke race in the men’s team sprint qualification round, looking to advance to the medal races on Tuesday. Dylan Bibic, Michael Foley, Mathias Guillemette, and Carson Mattern team up in the first round of the men’s team pursuit.
The artistic swimming team event begins on Monday, with the first of three stages — the technical routine. Canada’s team features Scarlett Finn, Audrey Lamothe, Jonnie Newman, Raphaelle Plante, Kenzie Priddell, Claire Scheffel, Jacqueline Simoneau and Florence Tremblay.
Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson take on American pair Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss in the round of 16 of the women’s beach volleyball competition.
After finishing fourth together in the women’s 10m platform synchro diving event, Caeli McKay and Kate Miller compete in the preliminary round of the individual event on Monday. If they place in the top 18 that move on to the semifinal, that round would take place later in the day, with the final following on Tuesday.
Mario Deslauriers and horse Emerson, Erynn Ballard and Nikka vd Bisschop, and Tiffany Foster with Battlecry will represent Canada in the individual equestrian jumping qualifiers.
Sarah Douglas competes in races nine and ten of the women’s ILCA 6 sailing preliminary round, needing to be in the top ten of the overall standings in order to compete in Tuesday’s medal race. Emily Bugeja competes in races five to eight of the women’s Formula Kite competition.
Canada’s men’s table tennis team faces Germany in the last 16 of the team event, looking to advance to Wednesday’s quarterfinal. Jeremy Hazin, Edward Ly and Eugene Wang will represent Canada.
Linda Morais competes in the round of 16 in the women’s 68kg freestyle wrestling event, taking on Nigeria’s Blessing Oborududu. If she is able to advance, the quarterfinals and semifinals are also scheduled for Monday, with the repechage rounds and medal bouts set for Tuesday.
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