Paris 2024 Paralympics Day 2: Two more Canadians pick up Para cycling bronze medals
Three of Canada's four medals have come at the velodrome so far.
The National Velodrome continued to be a venue full of success for Canada at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games on Friday, as two more Para track cycling bronze medals were won on Day 2.
The first came from Keely Shaw, who finished third in the women’s C4 3000m individual pursuit event for the second Paralympics in a row. She qualified with the third-fastest time, 3:44.012, before racing to a time of 3:46.942 in the bronze medal race, beating Amercian rider Samantha Bosco to take the bronze medal.
Australia’s Emily Petricola won the gold medal, overlapping New Zealand’s Anna Taylor to repeat as the Paralympic champion, hours after setting a new world record of 3:38.061 in qualifying.
About an hour after Shaw raced onto the podium, Alexandre Hayward did the same in the men’s C3 individual pursuit, picking up a bronze medal in his Paralympic debut.
Hayward had the fourth-fastest time in qualifying earlier on Friday, racing 3000 metres around the track in a time of 3:26.940 to qualify for the bronze medal final. In that race he finished in a time of 3:24.865, beating Spanish cyclist Eduardo Santas by about four seconds for a convincing victory and a spot on the podium.
It was the first medal of his Paralympic career, but he will have two more chances to add to it as he turns his attention to road cycling — set to compete later in the Games in the men’s C3 time trial and road race.
Charlotte Bolton represented Canada in the final of the women’s F41 shot put event, throwing 7.92 metres with her second attempt to finish tenth. Anthony Bouchard advanced to the final of the men’s 400m final in the T52 category where he finished 6th later in the day, while Amanda Rummery advanced to the final of the women’s 400m T47 event with a second-place finish in her heat — with that final set for Saturday.
Brent Lakatos advanced in the men’s 5000m T54 event, dominating his first round heat alongside Switzerland’s world record holder Marcel Hug as the pair broke away from the pack early and nearly overlapped the chasing group to both easily qualify for the final on Saturday.
In the pool, two Canadians reached finals in their respective events after advancing from the morning heats. Sebastian Massabie finished fifth in the final of the men’s 100m freestyle S4 event, before Katarina Roxon finished eighth in the women’s 100m breaststroke SB8. Fernando Lu was disqualified in his first round heat in the men’s 100m breaststroke SB9, while Canada’s 4x50m freestyle relay team — made up of Massabie, Philippe Vachon, Hannah Oullette, and Aly Van Wyck-Smart — finished fifth in their heat and did not advance to the final.
The Canadian men’s wheelchair basketball team got off to a strong start in their tournament, dominating France in the second half of their Group A opener to take an 83-68 win despite trailing at halftime. Colin Higgins led the way with 38 of Canada’s points, and Patrick Anderson — one of Canada’s opening ceremony flag bearers — followed with 31 points of his own.
The wheelchair rugby squad got back on track in their tournament, bouncing back from an opening defeat on Thursday to beat Germany 54-47 and improve to 1-1. Zak Madell led the way again for Canada, scoring 28 tries.
Kyle Tremblay advanced to the next round of the men’s compound open Para archery competition, beating Alisina Manshaezadeh of Iran 140-135 in the 1/16 elimination final.
In his Paralympic debut, rower Jacob Wassermann advanced to the repechage round of the men’s PR1 single sculls event after finishing sixth in his heat in the opening round. The repechage takes place on Saturday, ahead of the final on Sunday for those who are able to advance.
After winning their opening match on Thursday, Canada’s women’s goalball team dropped to 1-1 in Pool D action with a loss to Japan. Emma Reinke gave Canada an early lead, but that would be the team’s only point in a tight match as Japan scored once on either side of halftime to take a tight 2-1 win.
Alison Levine booked her spot in the quarterfinals of the women’s boccia BC4 event, thanks to a comeback victory over Nataliia Konenko of Ukraine. After losing his opening match on Thursday, Iulian Ciobanu bounced back on Friday with a victory over Abdul Razzaq Abdul Rahman of Malaysia in the BC4 category. Lance Cryderman was eliminated from the men’s BC1 event after losing to Hong Kong’s John Loung to fall to 0-2, while Danik Allard lost twice — to Felix Ardi Yudha of Indonesia and Yan Zhiqiang of China — to fall to 0-3 and be eliminated from the men’s BC2.
Yuka Chokyu is now 0-2 in the women’s singles WH1 Para badminton group stage, falling in three sets (21-16, 15-21, 21-7) to Daniele Torres Souza of Brazil. She battled back to win the second set but ran out of steam in the third, and now sits bottom of her group with one match remaining.
What’s happening on Day 3?
Below are all of the Canadian athletes competing on Saturday. Click here for CBC’s guide on when and where to watch every Paralympic event.
Five Canadians will compete in Para athletics finals on Saturday, starting with two in the morning session at Stade de France — Ashlyn Renneberg in the women’s F13 javelin final and Guillaume Ouellet in the men’s T13 5000m final, with the latter looking to reach the podium at last after finishing 4th at Rio 2016 and 5th at Tokyo 2020. There will be three Canadians racing in finals in the evening as well, beginning with Keegan Gaunt in the women’s 1500m T13 final and ending with Amanda Rummery in the women’s 400m T13 final after advancing from the first round on Friday. In between will be Brent Lakatos in the men’s 5000m T54 final, with the 44-year-old looking for the 12th Paralympic medal of his incredible career.
In the pool, one of Canada’s strongest medal hopes, Nicholas Bennett, competes for the first time at Paris 2024, in the heats of the men’s 200m freestyle S14 event in which he is the reigning World and Commonwealth champion. Sixteen-year-old Reid Maxwell, the youngest Canadian athlete at Paris 2024, competes for the first time in Paris as well in the first round of the men’s 100m backstroke S8 event. Tess Routliffe and Danielle Dorris both compete in the women’s 200m individual medley SM7, racing in the same first round heat. Routliffe is the defending world champion in this event, with Dorris taking the bronze in that same final.
For all three swimming events, the heats take place in the morning session before the finals in the evening for the athletes that are able to advance.
After previously representing Canada in the Winter Paralympics, Mel Pemble will make her Summer Paralympic debut on Saturday, racing in the women’s C1-3 500m time trial event at the velodrome. Qualification is in the first session, and if she is able to advance to the final, it will take place later on Saturday. Pemble enters as a medal threat, having won the silver in this event at both the 2023 Parapan Am Games and 2024 World Championships.
Canadian athletes competing in non-medal events on day 3:
Jacob Wassermann will race in the PR1 men’s single sculls repechage, a second chance to reach Sunday’s final.
Rob Shaw begins his wheelchair tennis competition at Rolland Garros against Brazilian Ymanitu Silva, who he has beaten in 11 of their 13 all-time matches.
Alison Levine plays her first knockout match in the women’s BC4 boccia event against a tough opponent, up against world number one Leidy Chica Chica in the quarterfinals. Levine is ranked number two, and beat the Colombian in the gold medal match at the 2023 Parapan Am Games. Iulian Ciobanu plays his third and final boccia preliminary round match, up against Great Britain’s Stephen McGuire in the men’s BC4.
Yuka Chokyu plays the third and final match of her Group C schedule in the women’s singles WH1 para badminton event, against Thailand’s Sujirat Pookkham.
The Canadian men’s and women’s wheelchair basketball teams will both play their second preliminary round matches on Saturday, and are both up against Great Britain.
In wheelchair rugby, Canada finish Group A action with a match against Japan. The top two teams in each group advance to the semifinals, while the bottom two teams move on to the placing playoffs to determine final rankings. Canada have a 1-1 record through two matches.
Canada’s women’s sitting volleyball team plays the second of three group stage matches, taking on Brazil.
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