Mixed doubles subs give it best shot; Canuck duo bows, but Canadian team decks Americans 3-1
The Calgary Herald

Bob Milroy and Fiona McKee were OK with being the odd couple in Saturday’s team event finals at the Pan American badminton championships.

The Canadian duo was thrown together at the last minute to compete in the mixed doubles portion of a tie against the U.S. at the Calgary Winter Club. But the two weren’t completely surprised when they were taken out by the powerhouse pair of Howard Bach—a 2005 world doubles champion—and Eva Lee, 21-10 and 21-16.

Since Canada’s regular mixed doubles team of Mike Beres and Valerie Loker was unavailable for the final due to Beres' wedding taking place on Sunday, Milroy and McKee stepped up. “We were playing against a world champion (Bach) and I’m a singles player and she (McKee) doesn’t play mixed doubles really,” added Milroy, an ex-Calgarian, who lives and trains in Denmark. “Yeah, so we went out and had fun and we tried something. “We had our moments, but in the end we’re not sharp enough to take that.”

Although they lost to the U.S. pair ranked No. 32 by the Badminton World Federation for mixed doubles, Canada beat the U.S. 3-1 overall thanks to its singles and women’s doubles teams that won their matches.

With the team win, Canada earned major points in the first tournament on the road to the 2008 Beijing Olympics during a year-long qualifying window that closes April 29, 2008.

After Milroy’s and McKee’s mixed doubles match, North Vancouver’s Anna Rice dispatched the U.S.’s Lauren Todt, 21-14 and 21-17. “It was a bit of a test for me concentration-wise, but I pulled it out.”

Ottawa’s Andrew Dabeka downed his longtime U.S. opponent, Eric Go, 21-17, 22-20. Go’s newfound aggressive play caught Dabeka off-guard, but the Canadian adjusted by trying to move his opponent as much as possible. “I was more thinking about the old Eric Go that I used to play last year,” said Dabeka, 28. “He’s become very aggressive, much more aggressive than he used to be. “I was able to stay with him enough and get the extra points at the end.”

Finally, McKee teamed up with Calgarian Charmaine Reid in the women’s doubles to finish off Lee and Messinee Mangkalakiri in a thrilling match 23-21, 23-21.

Canada was No. 1 in Group A after Friday’s team events against Mexico, Brazil, and Trinidad and Tobago while the U.S. placed first in Group B after competition with Peru, Guatemala and Puerto Rico. Earlier Saturday, in semifinals, Canada downed Peru 3-1 while the U.S. blanked Mexico 3-0.

Four Canadian open water swimmers earn nominations to Pan Am Games team.
CP Wire

FORT MYERS, Fla. (CP) _ Vancouver’s Tanya Hunks, Victoria’s Karley Stutzel, Calgary’s Jarrod Ballem and Philippe Dubreuil of Sherbooke, Que., earned nominations to the Canadian Pan Am Games team in the 10-kilometre open water swimming race after their performance at this weekend’s U.S. Nationals.

Americans Chip Peterson and Chloe Sutton had their second wins of the competition, placing first in the 10 kilometre race. In the women’s race, Sutton clocked one hour 49 minutes 08.63 seconds. Two other Americans had podium finishes with Kalyn Keller second at 1:49:10.46 and Kirsten Groome third in 1:49:12.32. Hunks, a bronze medallist at the Pan Pacific Championships last year, followed in fourth place in 1:50:18.26. Stutzel was 11th.

In the men’s 10 kilometre, Peterson clocked 1:41:18.75 with two Americans directly behind him. Fran Crippen was second in 1:41:43.61 and Mark Warkentin was third in 1:41:47.27. Ballem took seventh spot in 1:43:36.84 and Dubreuil was eighth in 1:43:42.38.

The top two Canadians in both races earned the nomination to the Pan Am team for the Games this July in Rio. All four Canadians also qualified for the World Cup open water races in London and Seville in June, along with Simon Tobin of Quebec City who was 15th in the men’s race.

NWHL falters, country yawns. Can women’s hockey be saved?
Garth Woolsey
Toronto Star

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 belonging to anything the Ottawa Senators say or do for the next two weeks or so, news that the National Women’s Hockey League is in deep trouble barely registers.

Which is a big part of the problem with women’s hockey in general.

Yes, there is a hard core affected by the still breaking news that the NWHL’s eastern portion has suspended operations for the 2007-08 season. But it is also true that one of the key problems facing that league is an overwhelming lack of interest. Women’s hockey at the elite level is like many sports that Canadians love so passionately every four years when the Olympics roll around, then ignore the rest of the time (women’s hockey debuted in 1998). For shame, but who’s doing anything about it?

For one, there’s Bill Metcalfe, owner of the Oakville Ice, one of seven teams put on ice on the weekend, along with the Etobicoke Dolphins, Mississauga Aeros, Brampton Thunder, Ottawa Raiders, Montréal Axion and Québec Avalanche. The four teams that comprise the league’s western division, in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Minnesota, are going to soldier on for now.

Metcalfe said in an interview yesterday that his team typically draws crowds of only about 100 and that sponsors are hard to find, but simple lack of interest is far from the league’s only challenge. “The league has been operating since 1999-2000 without a rethink. The girls are getting so good, so fast, so big and there’s so much at stake, it’s time for a rethink.”

Metcalfe, formerly owner of a high-end car dealership, who now describes himself as between projects, enumerates five areas of concern:

Free agency: All players are free agents at the end of each season. There is no players’ union. Incoming rookies can sign with any team they like. There is no draft.

Since Susan Fennell quit as commissioner to devote herself to being mayor of Brampton, the league has been left without a strong leader.

Financial instability.

On-ice rules need updating. On that last count, Metcalfe says it is time to put more rock-‘em and sock-‘em in the women’s game. While saying he’s no advocate of fighting, he would like to see the automatic imposition of four-game suspensions for same reduced. “With the new standards of calls Hockey Canada has brought in, with no contact being allowed in girls’ hockey, it’s almost impossible, very tough, to play.”

Head cages are mandatory in the NWHL. “Maybe,” says Metcalfe, “there should be an option to wear visors. I’d like to see the game updated. If it means taking some of the men’s rules, fine.”

As for the men’s rewards, well ... the women still play mostly for the love of the game. The best and luckiest of them are invited to be part of national team programs. “The next level up is pay, sort of semi-pro,” says Metcalfe. “I’m not talking NHL contracts here.”

First things first, though. There are more and more girls playing hockey in Canada: In 1995-96 female players registered with Hockey Canada totalled 23,922; last year the number was 69,557, with roughly half in Ontario.

Many of the players left without a place in the NWHL, a Senior Triple A league, will find places in Double A and some of the Olympic-level players may gravitate to the surviving teams out west. “They understand the issues,” says Metcalfe, adding the league may be salvaged “halfway through the season.” Or not.

Richter level shakeups? Drafts? Player unions? Contracts? Can agents and lawyers be far behind? Is that really progress? Strikes? Lockouts? Who needs them. Then again, the timing might be right – rumour has it Ted Saskin is looking for work.

1,000 days and counting; Vancouver braces for its Olympic closeup.
The Toronto Sun

Nine hundred and ninety nine days to go. And all is well. Prior to 7 p.m. here yesterday, at the corner of Hornby and Georgia, the six-metre high, three-metre wide Vancouver 2010 Countdown Clock read 1,000 days to go. The clock, embedded in the landmark structure in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery, at 7 p.m., the time the opening ceremonies of the XXI Olympic Winter Games begins, read 999 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes.

The clock may tell you the days to go to the beginning five-ring circus on Canada’s left coast, but Cathy Priestner is the thermometer for reading the “all is well” part.“Cathy brings something that way,” laughed Vancouver organizing committee CEO John Furlong.“She’s done it a few times. We keep looking at her. She continues to have a sense of calm. Overall, just by monitoring her, we know we’re not doing too badly.”

IMPRESSIVE RESUME
Priestner is the executive vice-president of sport and venue management.
Vancouver 2010 represents the eighth time she has participated in a Games in some capacity. The first female to win an Olympic gold medal for Canada in speed skating and the one who - along with Ken Read - carried the Olympic torch into the Calgary 1988 version of the greatest show on snow. She was also managing director of operations in Torino, where severe financial difficulties started to show. She was managing director of sport for Salt Lake 2002 where ... well remember the IOC bribery scandal?

“It’s interesting that this is about the same time the scandal happened,” said Priestner, the first woman to effectively be running all the events of an Olympics. “We were over in Lausanne at an IOC executive board meeting and had just presented to the board when Mark Holder started talking. “I was standing there. I was there when it actually happened.” Out of 30 people in key positions, Priestner was one of “only a handful” who ended up making it to the finish line. “A lot of it directly related to the scandal,” she said.

So far, there’s no scandal with VANOC, although there was a front-page expose in a Vancouver newspaper which attempted to prove VANOC was spending too much above their bid budget. False alarm. The paper failed to convert a number of bid figures from U.S. to Canadian dollars and subsequently printed an embarrassing retraction.

VANOC ON BUDGET
VANOC is not only on target with their bid figure of $874 million, the balanced budget comes complete with $100 million of built-in wiggle room built in.“We’ve demonstrated we’re going to get it done on time and on budget. Definitely we are on schedule and doing really well on timelines,” says Priestner.“We’re definitely more, uh, settled,” she added of the Salt Lake comparison throughout the organization.

This is normally the point where you see massive change in a Games organization, where the incompetent have exposed themselves and are being eliminated. Or where the highly qualified Games veterans see a sinking ship and bail before they end up wearing any of it.
“We’re in very, very good shape in terms of people and talent,” said the woman who was the lead author of the ‘Own The Podium 2010’ project which raised $110 million to help develop Canada’s athletes.“This is a really interesting and exciting time,” she said. “From now on you’re more operationally focused to actually putting the Games on.”

CONSTRUCTION SITES
The secondary hockey facility being built at UBC, the oval at Richmond and the curling facility in Vancouver are still construction sites.

But the freestyle ski venue with spectacular views of the Winter Olympic city from Cypress Mountain in West Vancouver is taking shape. And in Whistler, you don’t have to squint to see the venues coming to life. “We’re already operating two of them, the sliding centre and nordic. They were the two toughest to build,” said Furlong, the man who headed up the bid committee. “Our goal was to get to about two years out and have all the construction over and be in an unprecedented place as an Olympic project,” he said. “Most Olympics over the years have experienced delays in building venues. We wanted our venues finished and built. Besides, it’s cheaper quicker. And we wanted to have them done so Canadian athletes could get out to them early.

“By the end of this year, all but three venues will be completely finished,” Furlong continued. “We’re almost there now. “When venues are done, we begin holding the test events.”

There’s also important strategy employed when venues come online. “Once you have venues, you have to look after them,” Furlong explained. “The oval in Richmond, the curling in Vancouver and the second hockey arena at UBC will still be available for two full seasons.
“Whistler was more complicated. You kind of had to build between snowfalls.”

The big concern from the beginning was the road to Whistler, Hwy. 99, being totally inadequate to deliver the Olympic family and fans to the sliding, nordic and ski venues. It’s a massive project to make it worthy and it’s happening. “It’s 65% finished,” said Furlong. “It’s not a piece of VANOC responsibility, but it’s ahead of schedule and on budget. “It’s the only road through the corridor and they have to build it around the needs of citizens. There have been very few interruptions. It’s going fine. The initial target was 2009, but my sense is they’ll beat that target.”

Vancouver 2010, of course, has been blessed with three major venues - B.C. Place for the opening and closing ceremonies, GM Place for hockey and the Pacific Coliseum for figure skating - already in place. But they’ve even scored a major victory when it comes to one of them. “It didn’t make a great deal of sense to go to a bigger ice surface and have to come back in and go smaller again,” said Furlong of hockey in GM Place. “After a lot of negotiation, we achieved an agreement to play on the existing ice surface. That was a real shot in the arm financially. We saved easily $10-$12 million in GM Place alone and probably double that with the whole project,” Furlong said.

But they didn’t get everything right. The one serious screw-up appears to be curling. The venue at Hillcrest-Nat Bailey Stadium involves temporary seating which turns into a multi-purpose facility with a hockey rink, gymnasium, a 50-metre pool and the six sheets of curling ice used for practice. “It’s a very big sport in Canada and major curling events in Canada are now generally held in a very large building with a large number of seats. We only have 6,000 but we guarantee the venue will be very good and will look spectacular on TV,” said Furlong.

ANTICIPATION BUILDS
As the Countdown Clock ticks down, the anticipation begins to rise. “This is the time where you can almost feel it take shape,” said Furlong. “It’s a real good signal to the community that it’s coming quickly. That helps generate the excitement.” It’s easier for everybody to get excited when everybody knows everything is on time and on budget, he says. “Our team starts to grow rapidly now from 400 people to hundreds more. All of that is starting. In the coming months, the mascot, torch relay, ticket program and volunteer program will all begin.” It’s just 998 more sleeps till we say ‘Let the Games begin!’

TCPL signs on as official pipeline to the Games; Its contribution will be chiefly promotional.

The Vancouver Sun

Canadian pipeline giant TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. has joined the roster of official 2010 Olympic sponsors in the seemingly odd category of official pipeline operator, the company and Olympic organizers announced Monday.

The exact dollar amount of TransCanada’s commitment was not disclosed, but the Calgary-based company is being listed as an official supplier, which requires a minimum $3-million contribution. “It’s a cash deal, but they will be joining that [official sponsor] tier of our sponsorships,” Dave Cobb, executive vice-president for marketing and communications for the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (Vanoc), said in an interview.

So while TransCanada won’t be providing, say, natural gas to fire the Olympic flame in 2010, Cobb said the company will offer services “more on the promotional front.” However, under Vanoc’s exclusivity clauses, it means no other pipeline company can become a 2010 sponsor.
TransCanada earns marketing rights to use Vanoc’s official trademarks, and those of the Canadian Olympic team from the 2008 Games in Beijing through the 2012 London Olympics as part of the deal.

Cobb added that TransCanada wanted to be involved in the 2010 Games because of the company’s positive experience with being a sponsor for the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics.
Monday’s official announcement took place at the University of Calgary, where the TransCanada Arch—the welcoming sign for athletes to the 1988 Olympic athletes village—now stands.

Cobb said TransCanada’s employees will “become ambassadors” for the 2010 Olympics in the communities where it has operations, and “do that promotional and public relations work for us.”

TransCanada CEO Hal Kvisle said that from the company’s perspective, the sponsorship is a chance to show that its “commitment to excellence” includes “playing a role in the success of world-class events held here in Canada.”

To date, Vanoc has raised $620 million of the $760 million it hopes to raise to support the organizations $1.63-billion operating budget for the 2010 Olympics. Its goal is to secure $665 million by the end of this year and the balance by the end of 2009.