Casey Sandy
(Grace Chiu Photo)

Six medals, including two gold, for Canadian gymnasts at international competition.
(Canadian Sport News)

KIEV, Ukraine- Casey Sandy of Mississauga, Ont., and Brittnee Habbib of Oshawa, Ont., highlighted a six-medal performance for Canadian gymnasts Sunday with one gold apiece at the Stella Zakharova Cup.

Sandy, 20, earned a victory on parallel bars with an 8.875 score and added silver medals on high bar with an 8.775 and floor with an 8.675. He was also fourth on pommel horse. On Saturday he was second all around to finish the meet with four medals.

“I was pretty pleased with my parallel bars, it’s usually not my best event,” said Sandy, a member of Canada’s ninth place team at the 2003 world championships. “I got a lot of points from the judges with my combination move at the start. My high bar was probably my best event today. I’ve been working on a new release and I got through it today.”

Jared Walls of Edmonton was also in four finals: he placed fourth on vault, fifth on parallel bars and sixth on pommel horse and high bar.

In women’s competition, Habbib, 15, led Canada to a 1-2 finish on floor with an 8.900. Kelsey Hope, Habbib’s clubmate at Gemini Gymnastics in Oshawa, was second at 8.875.

“It’s an amazing feeling to win,” said Habbib. “My triple turn had been giving me problems lately and I did it perfectly today. It’s a routine I’ve been working for a few weeks and this was the best I’ve ever done it.”

Nansy Damianova of Montreal’s Club Gymnix added a bronze on uneven bars with an 8.750. Hope was also fifth on vault, and Laura-Ann Chong of the Phoenix Club in Vancouver and Dawn Patulli of WimGym in Beaconsfield, Que., were fifth and sixth on beam.

Ukranian gymnasts won the other three finals.

Canada ended the competition with 10 medals.

On Saturday, in addition to Sandy’s all around medal, Canada won silver in the women’s team event with Habbib, Chong, Alyssa Brown of Gymnastics Mississauga and Marci Bernholtz of ASF Gymnastics in Richmond Hill, Ont. Canada’s second team placed fourth with Damianova, Hope, Patulli and Leslie Mak of Sport Seneca in Toronto.

Hope and Patulli were second and third in the women’s junior all around standings but were alongside the seniors in Sunday’s event finals.

Bernholtz had qualified for two finals but strained her knee and did not compete Sunday.

Canadian women win gold, men silver at ASUA Cup water polo tournament.
(Water Polo Canada)

MEXICO CITY- Canada won the gold medal in women’s competition Sunday with a 9-6 victory over Cuba in the gold medal game at the ASUA Cup water polo tournament.

The Canadian men came within three seconds of pushing the powerful Americans into overtime and completed an impressive showing in a 7-6 loss in the championship final for the silver medal.

Canada was fielding a young squad for the women’s tournament and they posted a perfect 6-0 mark.

The women’s team members were Valérie Dionne and Alexandra Dionne of Ste-Foy, Que., Krystina Alogbo, Joannie Morisseau and Dominique Perreault of Montreal, Jessica Wagner of Regina, Carmen Eggens and Kerry Kaukinen of Vancouver, Marissa Janssens, Marina Radu, Stephanie Valin and Katie Monton of Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Que., and Emily Csikos of Calgary.

In the men’s final, U.S., captain Adam Wright scored on a penalty shot with three seconds left.

Aaron Feltham of Ottawa led Canada with two goals while Kevin Graham and Noah Miller, both of Regina, Nathaniel Miller of Dollard-des-Ormeaux and Iain lark of Vancouver scored one apiece. Nick Youngblud of Hamilton was the Canadian goaltender.

Canada gained a 4-2 lead in the second quarter before the Americans scored four unanswered goals to go ahead 6-4 in the third. However, the Canadians fought back to tie with Lark scoring with two minutes to go.

Earlier Sunday in the semifinal, Canada defeated Cuba 10-7. Canada’s tournament record this week was 6-2.

Also on the men’s team were Clem Hui, Dan Stein and Kevin Mitchell and Thomas Marks of Vancouver, Alexandre Thibeault of Montreal, Jean Sayegh of Ste-Foy and Vladimir Cosic of Calgary.

Shahier Razik

Canada’s Shahier Razik wins Losone Open squash tournamenrt.
(Canadian Sport News)

LOSONE, Switzerland- Shahier Razik of Toronto earned his second professional win this season and eighth of his career on Sunday beating Gavin Jones of Wales 11-9, 11-9, 11-6 at the Losone Open Squash Championships.

Razik, seeded third and ranked 42nd in the world, completed the tounament without dropping a single game. Jones was the fourth-seed and ranked 48th internationally.

Jones fought hard to stay with Razik but was unable to break the Canadian's iron defence. Razik relied on his medium-paced game and cleverly manoeuvred his opponent around the four corners of the court, fully confident that his physical attributes would prevail once again.

This week Razik won four matches including victories over fifth-seed Eric Galvez of Mexico in the quarterfinal and Ramy Ashour of Egypt in the semifinal. Ashour upset top-seed David Bianchetti of Italy in the quarterfinal.

Razik’s previous tournament win this season was also in Switzerland, in Geneva last month at the Swiss Open.

Diane Jones Konihowski

Jones Konihowski elected to COC.
(The StarPhoenix - Saskatoon)

Diane Jones Konihowski of Calgary was elected to the board of directors of the Canadian Olympic Committee during its annual general meeting in Regina during the weekend.

Jones Konihowski, a native of Saskatoon, competed in track and field at the 1972 and 1976 Olympics and was Canadian chef de mission at the 2000 Games.

Also elected as directors were Dr. Gene Edworthy of Calgary, Steve Podborski of Whistler, B.C., Sally Rehorick of Fredericton, N.B., and Dr. Gene Sutton of Hamilton.

Mike Chambers of Ottawa was re-elected for a second term as COC president.

Vice-presidents are Walter Sieber of Montreal and Jean Dupre of Ottawa and executive committee members are Marcel Aubut of Quebec City, Charmaine Crooks of Vancouver, Shane Pearsall of Calgary, Gordon Peterson of London, Ont., and Tricia Smith of Vancouver.

Thomas Grandi (CP)

Grandi to Mark: thanks, bud: Slalom sensation Thomas Grandi was listening closely.
(The Vancouver Sun)

TORONTO -- Wherever you are, Mark Tewksbury, Thomas Grandi says thanks.

Thanks for showing up at that Olympic excellence seminar in Lake Louise, Alta., last spring, the one with Steve Podborski and Brian Stemmle, the one where you talked about believing in yourself when not many others did -- before winning a gold medal in the 100-metre backstroke at the Barcelona Olympics.

And thanks, too, to the seminar's organizers, for the little black notebook Grandi and the others took away as a parting gift. It came in handy. "At the top of the first page I wrote 'two Olympic golds in 2006,' and that's to be continued," Grandi said with a laugh in a telephone interview following an on-hill training session with Canada's national ski team in Panorama earlier this week. "Below that I wrote that I wanted to be in the Top 3 in the standings in the slalom and the giant-slalom, and I checked off the G-S there.
"And that I wanted to win four specific races."

One of the races was the G-S at Alta Badia, Italy, which is where an entirely respectable but altogether unspectacular 12-year World Cup career changed course, just a few days before Christmas. Grandi's gold medal at Alta Badia was career win No. 1. It was also the first time a Canadian man had won a technical race since the World Cup began in 1966-67. Had Grandi left well enough alone he might have been dismissed as a one-off, a feel-good fluke who, at age 32, had momentarily lifted the hopes of a Canadian men's alpine team that had forgotten how to win in recent years.

But then Grandi won again, three days later, in Flachau, Austria. And suddenly the would-be fluke was one of the favourites, challenging the big guns such as American Bode Miller and the legendary Hermann Maier, for G-S supremacy.

His winning ways even caught on with his wife, cross-country skier Sara Renner, at the world Nordic ski championships in Germany a month later. Renner, an eight-year-without-a-podium veteran of the team, captured a bronze in the sprint event -- Canada's first-ever medal at the worlds.

And so it was that Canmore, Alta.'s very own royal couple was crowned. "Sara and I are in the paper pretty much every week, it seems like," Grandi said. "And it's only a weekly paper."

Grandi says he and Renner's winter of success has led to a few other perks, too, such as the offer from a local dentist to provide his services free of charge and the occasional free meal at a restaurant. But much better than the monetary pats on the back has been the outpouring of support from the community. "People are genuinely happy for us," Grandi said. "These are the people that see us running, and hiking, and going to the gym, and they realize how hard and how long we've worked to try and reach our dreams."

One of those dreams is the cabin the couple is building in the woods about 90 minutes from town. "That is our present to ourselves," Grandi said. "We actually started building it last spring, and after the two [World Cup wins] we opened an account at the local hardware store and told one of our carpenter friends to go ahead and start working on it, because we wanted it to be done sometime this spring."

The cabin will serve as the couple's refuge. A place where they can hide out, recover from the gruelling dryland training sessions that await them this summer, and dream even bigger dreams. "I thought for a long time, to be able to go to the Olympics and think of yourself as a true contender, you would have had to have won at least once," Grandi said. "I think the pressure there is so great that you have to be comfortable and you have to really believe in yourself."

Grandi believes in himself now, thanks to Tewksbury.

Donovan Bailey (Getty Images)

Summer Medal Push Begins.
(The Calgary Sun)

Canada's national sports federations and the COC have begun hashing out a plan in which summer-sports funding is prioritized to generate results at Olympic Games. The idea is modelled after Own the Podium, the strategy being using to make Canada the top country at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver.

COC executive director Mark Lowry hopes with a similar plan in place for summer sports, Canada will finish no worse than 16th in the medal standings at the 2008 Games in Beijing and no worse than eighth four years later. "This is huge because this has never really been done before with summer sports in Canada," said Lowry.

"There's never really been a coalescing of summer sports to say 'Why don't we put together a similar kind of plan that we collectively develop over the years.' "

The call for such a program seems to get louder with each Olympic event. Lowry said the last Summer Olympics in Athens, where Canada finished 19th with 12 medals, and the 2000 Games in Sydney, where Canada won 14, really illustrated something needed to be done.

Earlier this year, the COC announced its Own The Podium strategy for the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver. At a price tag of $110-million over five years, the goal is to have Canada at the top of the medal standings with at least 35 podium finishes. The plan has not been without its critics, because it places sports in tiers and hands out funding accordingly.

Lowry said among high-performance athletic officials there is really no debate necessary for the greater good.

And Donovan Bailey, the Canadian sprinter who won Olympic gold in 1996, agreed something needs to be done. "Maybe Canada is the only team that focuses on just being there," Bailey said. "If you send your kid to school, it's not OK to get an F. It's just not all right ... That's what we have look at with our athletes. We have to prepare them to get As."

Bailey pointed out that sports with less of a following should not be concerned they may be pushed aside in the process as long as the focus is who can win.

COC sticking to the plan.
(The Leader-Post - Regina)

The Canadian Olympic Committee remains committed to smaller teams and pushing towards excellence at the Summer Olympics.

The COC came under fire leading up to and after the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece after adopting tougher standards for Canadian athletes to qualify for the Olympics. The end result was Canada sent 264 athletes to Athens and returned with 12 medals, down from 14 medals at the 2000 Summer Olympics. "That's what we expected, compared to the other sports systems in the world, where they take it more seriously than we do,'' said Mark Lowry, the COC's executive director of sport, who is in Regina for the annual COC Congress.

"With the resources we have and the ability to change the direction, we'll do better in the future. There isn't any doubt about it. "Our mission is to provide the best opportunities for our athletes to get podium results. We've created our targets and objectives for that. There is no reason why we should be apologetic.''

The COC has targeted 10 to 12 summer sports where Canada has the best chance of winning medals. The list includes rowing, swimming, diving and canoeing. A sport review panel is expected to announce the official list by November. "Those are sports that we know we have a high probability of winning medals,'' Lowry said. "We're going to make sure that we put every dollar we have in position to help them.''

The model follows the path already established by countries that have enjoyed success at the Olympics. The concentration of funding towards successful sports tends to go against the Canadian grain where participation rates higher than success. "We can send much larger teams to the Olympics and not be as concerned about the overall team result and let them be part of the experience,'' Lowry said. "There are people who believe that. It's important to get to the Olympics, But is it not important to have athletes who are the best in the world and given what is required to be successful? "We'll balance that. We'll send those who qualify to the Olympics but we also want to send those who have a chance to succeed.''

Lowry said that Canada was successful at the recent Summer Olympics. Canada won fewer medals but enjoyed a higher percentage of performances based on the top 12 in the world. Lowry said that only 20 to 25 athletes were left off the Olympic team because they failed to meet the standard of being in the top 12 in the world.

"We're not restricting that number,'' Lowry said. "What the summer sports are being asked is. 'Do we want to continue with the same approach for Beijing in 2008?' We'll discuss that more at our meetings in November.''

The Congress continues today with the elections to the COC's board. The COC's annual general meeting is Sunday at the Delta Regina.

Ian Moss

Rowing Canada Names a New Executive Director.

Rowing Canada Aviron (RCA) announced today that Ian Moss is its new Executive Director.

"We are delighted to have this well-respected sport administrator on our team, and look forward to hearing his ideas and benefiting from his leadership," said John Carmichael, President of Rowing Canada Aviron (RCA). "We were very pleased with the quality of applicants for the job of Executive Director, but Ian stood out as the candidate with the background and skills that will make him a very effective leader of Rowing Canada."

Moss, 45, has more than 15 years of experience in national and international sport organizations, and has been the Executive Director of Badminton Canada – a National Sport Organization with 85,000 members – since 1997. Moss has also held positions with the Canadian Coaching Association and the Canadian Amateur Diving Association, and has extensive experience in fundraising, sport marketing and event management.

"I am thrilled to get the opportunity to work with an organization that has a proven track record of success and cooperation toward common goals," said Moss. "I believe that my broad knowledge of, and experience within, the Canadian sport system can contribute significantly to Rowing Canada Aviron's organizational priorities."

Moss, who currently lives in Ottawa, Ont., has a Masters in Physical Education from the University of Ottawa. He will be moving to Victoria, B.C., site of RCA's head office, and will officially take over on June 1. Moss replaces Alan Roaf who became RCA's High Performance Director this month.

Rowing Canada Aviron has more than 115 member clubs across the country, and is one of Canada's most successful summer Olympic sports in recent history with a total of 13 medals at the last four Olympics.

"I look forward to helping the Board and the membership of RCA achieve their objectives of continued world-class excellence from the high performance program and an increased domestic base for the sport," said Moss.

Rowing Canada Aviron Applauds International Paralympic Committee Announcement

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) announced today that rowing has been accepted as a new sport on the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games program. The IPC will work closely with the International Rowing Federation (FISA) to finalize the detailed competition program for rowing.

"The inclusion of adaptive rowing in the 2008 Paralympic Games is a milestone in the evolution of rowing in Canada and indeed around the world," said Alan Roaf, Rowing Canada's High Performance Director.

"Rowing Canada has been a supporter of adaptive rowing and the Paralympic movement for many years and we're delighted at this announcement," said Roaf. "Those athletes who gain selection to Canada's Paralympic team in Beijing will be a credit to Canada and an inspiration to us all."

With the inclusion of rowing, the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games will include a total of 20 sports. Rowing Canada sent its first-ever adaptive team to the World Championships in 2004.

IPC web site: http://www.paralympic.org

Leadership in the Olympic Movement Seminar with Roger Jackson.

April 19 at 8:00pm
Kinesiology Complex B132
FREE Public Lecture

Dr. Roger Jackson promises to deliver an in-depth, informative and exciting talk on leadership and leadership styles in the Olympic movement and the current London bid for the 2012 Olympics at the Sigma Xi Lecture on April 19 at 8:00 pm in KNB 132. Jackson is a three-time Olympian with a gold medal in rowing. He has been elected three times as President of the Canadian Olympic Association and he has served as IOC advisor for the 1988 Olympic Winter Games for the Nagano and the Salt Lake City Winter Games. Jackson retired in 2004 from the University as Founding Director of the U of C Sport Medicine Centre and is currently Senior Advisor to the London 2012 Olympic bid.