Emilie Heymans and Blythe Hartley (CP Photo)

Four medals for Canada at Grand Prix diving competition.
(Canadian Sport News)

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida- Canada’s world champion and Olympic medallist divers Alexandre Despatie of Laval, Que., and Emilie Heymans of St-Lambert, Que., won gold medals this weekend at the sixth stop on the Grand Prix diving circuit.

In addition, Montreal teenagers Meaghan Benfeito and Roseline Filion added silver in the women’s synchronized 10-metres and Philippe Comtois of Laval, Que., and Arturo Miranda of Pointe-Claire, Que., were also second in the men’s three-metre synchro event.

On men’s three-metre springboard, Despatie, the Olympic silver medallist in the event, earned his second consecutive Grand Prix gold earning 480.39 points despite balking on his third dive. Cesar Castro of Brazil was second in 457.38 and China’s Xu Xiang third in 455.94.

In the third round, Despatie was set to attempt a reverse 3 1\2 somersault in tuck position but stopped at the end of the board. His restart thought went very well as he earned 8.0”s and 9.0’s but for each of those marks two points was deducted because of the balk.

“I seem to always find a way to get myself into trouble,” said Despatie, who also needed to make a big comeback last weekend in his Grand Prix win in Montreal. “But again I didn’t give up and I think the highlight for me is how I came back after the balk and did a very strong dive. In fact, the three dives that followed were also very good.”

On women’s 10-metre tower, Heymans in her first international competition since the Olympics was the winner with 377.91 points. China’s Jia Dongjin was second at 352.38 and Mexico’s Paola Espinosa third at 350.38.

Heymans withdrew from last week’s Grand Prix due to an arm injury. She even altered her dive list replacing a reverse 3 1\2 with a front 3 1\2 in order to minimize the pain on her arm.

“I’ve missed some training because of the injury but I think I showed tonight my dives are still there,” said Heymans, who’ll look to defend her world title at the 2005 World Aquatic Championships July 17-31 in Montreal. “I just got better as the competition progressed. It was important to come here and make a strong impression.”

In the women’s synchronized 10-metre, Jia Tong and Chen Ni of China took the gold with 335.34 points followed by Benfeito and Filion in second in 302.04 with Natalia Goncharova and Yulia Koltunova of Russia third at 288.42.

At the Grand Prix in Montreal last week, Benfeito, 16, and Filion, 17, won the bronze in the same event. Filion also earned a bronze individually on tower at a Grand Prix in Russia in March.

On men’s three-metre synchro, Wang Feng and He Cheng of China, who earned one perfect 10 on their fourth dive, took the gold with 377.40 points. Comtois and Miranda, in their first season together, followed in 315.66 for their first international medal together while Andreas Wels and Tobias Schelleberg of Germany were third in 314.64.

The Canadian pair was in sixth spot heading into the fifth and final round of dives. They nailed their last dive earning 79.56 points which was the second highest total after the Chinese to rocket up the standings. “We had a really great competition,” said Comtois. “All our dives were steady.”

Martha Dale of Victoria and Mandy Moran of Calgary were fifth on the women’s synchronized three-metre event.

Mike Brown (CP Photo)

Canada announces 23-member swimming team for the 2005 World Aquatic Championships.
(Canadian Sport News)

MONTREAL- Riley Janes of Nanaimo, B.C., and Chuck Sayao of Toronto came agonizingly close but there were no new qualifiers in the final day of competition Saturday at the 2005 World Aquatic Championship Trials. Therefore Canada has a 23-member team set in the pool and open water events in swimming at the worlds this summer.

In Saturday’s action, Janes suffered the biggest heartbreak coming within 0.01 seconds of the qualifying standard in the men’s 50 backstroke. He clocked 26.14 seconds and the time to beat to get on the world team was 26.13. Matt Rose of Peterborough, Ont., was second in 26.20 and Callum Ng of Vancouver third in 26.25.

In the men’s 400 individual medley, Sayao clocked 4:21.09 only 0.2 seconds off the 4:20.89 standard. Keith Beavers of Waterloo, Ont., who qualified in two events – the 200 backstroke and 200 IM- was second in 4:22.40.

Ryan Cochrane of Victoria won the men’s 1,500 freestyle. For the women victors were Kelly Stefanyshyn of Vancouver in the 50 butterfly and Liz warden of Toronto in the 400 IM, both previously qualified, as well as Jenna Gresdal of Toronto in the 50 freestyle and Lisa Blackburn of Waterloo in the 50 breaststroke.

The qualified team members are for the men: Mike Mintenko, Vancouver (50 and 100 butterflys); Thomas Kindler, Montreal (50 butterfly); Mike Brown, Calgary (100 and 200 breaststroke); Scott Dickens, Vancouver (50 and 100 breaststrokes); Colin Russell, Toronto (400 freestyle); Matthew Huang, Vancouver (50 breaststroke); Brent Hayden, Vancouver (100 and 200 freestyles); Rick Say, Victoria (100 and 200 freestyles); Yannick Lupien, Quebec City (100 freestyle); Andrew Hurd, Toronto (800 freestyle); Keith Beavers, Waterloo, Ont. (200 backstroke and 200 individual medley); Jarrod Ballem, Calgary (open water 5 km and 10 km).

For the women: Liz Warden, Toronto (200 individual medley); Brittany Reimer, Surrey, B.C. (400, 800, 1,500 freestyles); Tanya Hunks, New Westminster, B.C. (800 and 1,500 freestyles, open water five and 25 kilometres); Erin Gammel, Calgary (50 and 100 backstroke); Audrey Lacroix, Montreal (200 butterfly); Jennifer Carroll, Trois-Rivieres, Que. (50 backstroke); Sophie Simard, Quebec City (200 freestyle); Christin Petelski, Victoria (200 breaststroke); Karley Stutzel, Victoria (open water 10 km); Kathleen Stoody, Burnaby, B.C. (200 breaststroke); Kelly Stefanyshyn, Vancouver (200 backstroke).

“I think we’ll have a team that’ll be well prepared and do a great job at the world championships,” said Pierre Lafontaine, Swimming\Natation Canada’s CEO. “They’ll be very competitive. I think we saw at these trials that we have a lot of strengths in our program.”

Two gold medals for Chantal Petitclerc at Paralympic World Cup.
(Canadian Sport News)

MANCHESTER, England- Chantal Petitclerc of Montreal won gold medals in the women’s 200 and 1,500 metre wheelchair races to highlight a five medal performance for Canada in track and field competition Sunday at the inaugural Paralympic World Cup.

Jeff Adams of Toronto added silver and bronze medals and Diane Roy of Sherbrooke, Que., chipped in a silver.

In the women’s 1,500, Petiticlerc clocked 3:56.04 on a slow track with Roy second in 3:56.30. Cheri Blauwet of the U.S., was third in 3:56.72.

In the women’s 200 wheelchair race, Petitclerc was first in 31.26 with Eliza Stankovich of Australia second in 32.17 and Edith Hunkeler of Switzerland third in 32.28. Roy was fourth in 33.12.

“I’m surprised to have had such a good start to the season,” said Petitclerc, who also won a 10 kilometre race in Montreal two weeks ago. “My training really suffered over the winter because of demands but now that’s slowing down a bit so I should only get better and better as the season wears on.”

Petitclerc had a dream season in 2004 capped by five gold medals and three world records at the Paralympic Games. She also won the women’s 800 metre demonstration wheelchair race at the Olympics. She was named Canada’s female athlete of the year for 2004 at the Canadian Sport Awards last month.

Roy landed in England last week only to discover her race chair was transferred to another flight during the stopover in London.

“With the travel and the late arrival of my chair I basically lost two days of training,” said Roy. “Then yesterday when I did some training on this track it was very slow and that didn’t provide any confidence. It’s only this morning while warming up on a small practice track that felt I had some speed in me.”

Adams had some bad luck in both his races on Sunday. In the men’s 1,900 metre pursuit wheelchair race, Ernst Van Dyk of South Africa won the gold medal in 4:20.80 just ahead of Adams in second at 4:21.08. Tomasz Hamerlak of Poland was third in 4:25.69. In the pursuit, the last place finisher after each lap withdraws from the race.

Adams added a bronze in the 1,500 clocking 3:22.60. Van Dyk won again in 3:21.85, a world record, and Hamerlak was second in 3:21.90. With 300 metres to go, Choke Yasuoka of Japan blew a tire right in front of Adams slowing him and allowing the racers to box the Canadian in.

“I’m a little bit frustrated,” said Adams, 34, a five-time Paralympian. “I was looking for two gold medals today. In the 1,500 it boiled down to some mental errors. It’s early in the season right now but I pride myself in being a good tactical racer. However I did make a good comeback to get the medal at the end.”

Colin Mathieson of Winnipeg returned to the international scene for the first time in a two years and placed sixth in the 100-metre wheelchair race and seventh in the 200.

“Everybody in the 100 final was in the Paralympic Games final last year except me,” said Mathieson, 25. “It’s really encouraging to know how I stack up against the big names. It was a milestone race for me when you consider I haven’t raced much internationally lately and the condition of the track here was very slow.”

Meanwhile at the Dixie Games in Warm Springs, Georgia, Michel Filteau of St-Jean Baptiste, Que., won three gold medals in wheelchair racing. Filteau placed first in the 1,500, 5,000 and 10,000 metre races.

“I was most pleased with my 10,000 because I basically raced it alone without too much pressure from the others,” said Filteau. “I still posted a solid time (20 minutes and 44.79) and I was pretty tired at the end.”

Carl Marquis of Sherbrooke, Que., also had a strong day earning a victory in the 400-metre wheelchair race in a personal best 49.14, finishing second in the 800 and fourth in the 1,500.

“I had an incredible start in the 400 and that’s what carried me through,” said Marquis.

Adam Van Koeverden (CP Photo)

Adam van Koeverden beats Olympic champion for second gold medal at World Cup paddling competition.
(Canadian Sport News)

POZNAN, Poland- Adam van Koeverden of Oakville, Ont., beat the two racers that finished ahead of him at the Olympics in the men’s kayak singles (K-1) 1,000-metres on Sunday for his second gold medal at a World Cup paddling competition.

Van Koeverden, at his first international competition this year, clocked three minutes and 39.640 seconds to finish ahead of Olympic champion Eirik Veraas Larsen of Norway, second at 3:40.894 and Ben Fouhy of New Zealand, the Games silver medallist, third in 3:40.990.

On Saturday, van Koeverden also won the K-1 500.

“What’s most impressive is Adam’s margin of victory in both races,” said van Koeverden’s coach Scott Oldershaw, from Montreal where the national team trials are being held (van Koeverden is pre-qualified). “These victories show that his training is going very well. It took longer to get into the beat this year but now with these competitions coming up there’s a lot of excitement.”

Van Koeverden will be joined by several teammates for the World Cup in Duisburg, Germany later this month. He is also scheduled to race an invitational meet in Berlin and,this summer at the Pan Am Championships set for July 7-10 at Lac-Beauport, Que. The season culminates with the world championships August 25-28 in Zagreb, Croatia.

At the Olympic Games last year, Van Koeverden captured a gold medal with a victory in the K-1 500 event, one day after racing to a bronze in the K-1 1,000.

He was Canada's first Olympic double medallist since sprinter Donovan Bailey and cyclist Clara Hughes earned two medals each at the 1996 Atlanta Games.

As a result of his performance, van Koeverden was chosen to carry the Canadian flag at the Closing Ceremony in Athens. He also won the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada’s athlete of the year.

Martin Brodeur (CP Photo)

TEAM CANADA CAPTURES SILVER MEDAL AT MEN’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP.
(Hockey Canada Release)

VIENNA – Team Canada won the silver at the Men’s World Hockey Championship after a 3-0 loss to the Czech Republic on Sunday.

Canada was seeking its third straight world championships since the Edmonton Mercurys won in 1950, the Lethbridge Maple Leafs took it in 1951 and Mercurys won again at the 1952 Winter Olympics, which also served as the world championship.

Joe Thornton was the tournament leading scorer with nine goals and 16 points which earned him Most Valuable Player honours, as voted by the media on-site, while Teammate Wade Redden was awarded with Top Defenceman by the Championship Directorate.

Joe Thornton, the leading scorer of the World Hockey Championship with 16 points in nine games, led the way for Canada offensively throughout the Championship, while Rick Nash chipped in to hold the second place in overall championship scoring with 15 points. Canada’s Simon Gagne finished the championship with ten points, giving Canadian players the 1-2-3 rank in overall scoring at this year’s championship.

Thornton now ranks in third place in Team Canada record book for most points all-time in one World Hockey Championship, behind Steve Yzerman (20 - 1990) and Eric Lindros (17 - 1993), while Rick Nash ranks in tied for fourth place in the same category.

Dany Heatley also moved into a tied for 2nd spot in career points all-time for Canada at the World Championship, with 32, tying Marcel Dionne and behind only Steve Yzerman with 39.

Benoit Huot (CP Photo)

Benoit Huot and Stephanie Dixon star for Canada in swimming at Paralympic World Cup.
(Canadian Sport News)

MANCHESTER, England- Benoit Huot of Montreal won gold and silver and Stephanie Dixon of Victoria added three silver medals on Saturday in swimming competition at the inaugural Paralympic World Cup for athletes with a disability.

In the men’s MD 100 freestyle, Huot, the world record holder in the event, clocked 54.45 seconds in a decisive victory. Robert Welbourn of Britain was second in 56.31 and Jesus Collado Spain third in 1:00.64. Donovan Tildesley of Vancouver was fourth in 1:00.97.

In the men’s S10 100 butterfly, world record holder Daniel Bell of Australia was the winner in 1:00:28 with Huot second in 1:01.14 and David Levecq of Spain third in 1:01.39.

Huot, a quintuple gold medallist at the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens, said he found it difficult to swim six times (prelims and finals) within a six hour time span. He was very pleased with his win in the 100 freestyle since it included swimmers in various disabilities and he wasn’t sure how strong the competition would be. In the 100 butterfly final, he was the only finalist who had swam the 100 freestyle final 15 minutes earlier.

Dixon, who led the Canadian team with eight medals at the Paralympic Games, finished second to South African star Natalie Dutoit in the MD 50 and 100 freestyles, the S9 100 backstroke. Dixon clocked 31.07, 1:06.14 and 1:10.94 in those three races respectively.

At the 2002 Commonwealth Games here Dutoit was the first swimmer with a disability to make an able-bodied final. On Saturday she broke her world records in both freestyle races clocking 29.35 in the 50 free and 1:01.68 in the 100 free.

Brad Sales of London, Ont., added a bronze in the men’s S9 100 backstroke in 1:08.32 with Andrew Haley of Toronto placing seventh in 1:11.69. James Crisp of England won the race in 1:05.45.

Huot was also fourth in the MD 50 freestyle and Tildesley fifth in the S11 100

Sherraine Mackay (CP Photo)

Fencer Sherraine MacKay wins bronze at Nanjing Grand Prix.
(Fencing Canada Release)

Nanjing, China – Sherraine MacKay of Brooks, Alta., added a bronze medal to her fencing world cup hardware collection today at the Nanjing Grand Prix after a tight fought 15-14 loss to eventual silver medallist Hajnalka Kiraly-Picot of France.

“I fenced super well throughout the day and my only major mistake came at 14-14 in the semi-finals. I rushed at her too much and wasn't as disciplined as before. Kiraly scored a nice hit to win the match” MacKay said, who is currently ranked 6th in the world.

Earlier in the day Sherraine breezed to victories over Na Yeun Lee of Korea 15-11, Julia Revesz of Hungary 15-10, Sarah Daninthe from France 15-11 and China’s Weiping Zhong 15-9.

Sherraine commented on her match with Chinese fencing star Zhong in the quarter-finals, "The crowd was really behind her but I felt so strong and focused being able to use a lot of the new actions my coach is teaching me.”

After the Athens Olympics MacKay packed up and headed to Budapest, Hungary to work with new coach Gyozo Kulcsar and the decision is clearly paying off.

German powerhouse, Imke Duplitzer won her 4th world cup gold medal of the year defeating Hajnalka Kiraly-Picot 15-11 in the final. MacKay shared the bronze medal podium with Eun Sook Choi of China.

Julie Leprohon of Montreal gave Canada their next best result placing 31st after a 15-10 loss to Imke Duplitzer in the second round. She won her first match against Dimitra Magkanoudaki from Greece 14-13.

Monique Kavelaars of Appin, Ont., and Calgary's Catherine Dunnette both made it to the first round finishing 62nd and 63rd while Magda Krol of Vancouver, BC., Brita Goldie of Calgary, Leigh Voigt and Joanna Guy both from Toronto, Ont. were eliminated after the pools on Friday.

Team Canada will compete in the team event tomorrow where they are ranked 6th in the world.

Nanjing World Cup Grand Prix official results: http://www.chnfencing.com/gpnanjing/

Jonathon Power (CP Photo)

Another major squash title for Canada’s Jonathon Power.
( By Tom Maidment for CSN in London)

LONDON- Jonathon Power of Montreal secured his 36th career profeesional squash title with a stunning 11-7, 11-6, 11-2 victory over defending champion and world number-one Thierry Lincou of France Friday in the championship match at the Super Series Finals at London’s Broadgate Arena.

The $85,000 U.S. tournament is one of the biggest of the year and reserved for the top-eight players in the world. It’s Power’s second major title in less than a week and his third in a month. Last week he won the Canadian crown in Toronto and last month he won the Bermuda Masters, the richest touurnament in the sport this year.
On Friday Power, seeded eighth and last, dominated the match from start to finish, disposing Lincou in just 40 minutes. The Canadian moved superbly aroundthe court, showing no ill effects of the ankle injury he sustained in his semifinal against Australia’s David Palmer on Thursday night.

"I was really sore, but I was moving pretty easily," said Power, 30, currently ranked fourth in the world. "I was a little bit concerned when I woke up this morning but I worked hard on trying to get my body in the best shape possible for the match.

"I just tried to run as fast as possible and play it point by point. The more I went on, the more comfortable I got. I was really seeing it. The more matches I play, the bigger the ball gets."

Lincou was clearly suffering from his draining semifinal against Lee Beachill of England on Thursday.

"I did everything I could,” said Lincou, who beat Power Monday in the opening round robin match. “Jonathon put on a lot of pressure and played at a high pace and I couldn’t really match it. I was a little behind him. It was 3-0 in the end and he played really well but I had a good week. I’m pretty happy but, physically, you’ve got limits."

It was Power’s third pro title of the year following victories at the Apawamis Open in January and Bermuda. He becomes only the third player ever to win the Super Series Finals title on more than one occasion - following in the footsteps of four-time champion Jansher Khan of Pakistan and the three-time winner, Peter Nicol of England.

In the battle for third place, Beachill defeated the Australian no.2 seed, David Palmer, 11-9, 9-11, 11-2 in a 23-minute third place play-off.

Paul Devillers (House of Commons Photo)