Canada racks up medals at Pan Ams as Games get underway.
CP Wire Byline: BY LORI EWING

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (CP) _ Canada continued its parade to the medal podium at the Pan American Games, but it was veteran cyclist Anne Samplonius who stole the show.

The 39-year-old cyclist won gold in the time trial Sunday while triathlete Brent McMahon, Shannon Condie in taekwondo, and the dressage team captured silver as Canada continued its strong start at the Games.

Lauren Groves of Vancouver took bronze in the women’s triathlon, while fencer Monica Kwan of Victoria captured bronze in the individual women’s foil adding to the three medals Canada won when competition opened Saturday.

Canada also captured a pair of bronze medals on the squash courts, with Runa Reta of Ottawa and Shawn Delierre of Montreal losing their semifinal matches. Both losing semifinalists earn bronze medals in Pan Am squash competition.

As of late Sunday, Canada was third in the medal standings with 11 _ two gold, three silver and six bronze. The U.S. led with 20 (11-6-3), while Brazil followed with 12 (1-6-5).

Canada also picked up a silver in the equestrian team dressage, a medal that qualified the country for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Tom Dvorak of Hillsburgh, Ont., was third overall in the two-day competition, while Diane Creech of Caistor Centre, Ont., was fifth, and Andrea Bresee of Bjorkdale, Sask., finished ninth.

In the pool, Alison Braden of Calgary scored four goals to lead Canada’s women’s water polo team 14-5 over Puerto Rico. Joelle Bekhazi of Hamilton and Marina Radu of Montreal added three goals apiece, while Dominique Perreault of Montreal scored twice, and Calgary’s Emily Csikos and Tara Campbell had one each. The win boosted Canada to 2-0 in the tournament.

The women’s field hockey team lost its opener 3-1 to Cuba. Andrea Rushton of Victoria scored Canada’s lone goal.

In rowing, Cristin McCarty of Saskatoon and Peggy Hyslop of Kamloops, B.C., were second to the U.S. in the women’s doubles race to determine lanes for the finals.

The men’s four Brent Holmes of Peterborough, Ont., David Lamb of Berwick, Ont., Vincent Goodfellow of Dorval, Que., and Todd Keesey of Saskatoon was also second to the U.S. in the race to decide lanes. Brazil took third.

Mike Beres of Ottawa and Calgary’s William Milroy are into the quarter-finals of badminton men’s doubles. Beres and Milroy edged Brazilians Lucas Araujo and Paulo Von Scala 2-1 (21-16, 21-23, 21-19). Beres and David Snider of Winnipeg also advanced to the men’s singles quarter-finals.

Snider and men’s doubles partner Joseph Rogers of Ottawa were knocked out in the quarter-finals with a loss to Thomas and Kerwyn Pantin. Val Loker of Laval, Que., and Sarah MacMaster lost their women’s doubles quarter-final match to Americans Mesinee Mangkalakiri and Eva Lee.

In shooting, Sharon Bowes of Waterloo, Ont., was sixth in the 10-metre air rifle, while Monica Fyfe of Winnipeg was seventh. Dorothy Ludwig of Langley, B.C., was seventh in the 25-metre sport pistol.

Canada’s women’s handball team dropped to 0-2 after getting routed 37-10 by Brazil.

Canadian gymnasts fourth in women’s team event at Pan Am Games.
Canadian Sport News

RIO - Canada placed fourth in the women’s team event and seventh in men’s team competition on Saturday to open the gymnastics competition at the Pan American Games.

In women’s team competition, Canada won its qualifying round but the in the second group, the U.S., wound up with gold ahead of Brazil and Mexico which also scored higher than Canada.

The Canadian team consisted of Peng Peng Lee of Toronto, Charlotte Mackie and Brittany Rogers, both of Coquitlam, B.C., Emma Willis of Sarnia, Ont., Ti Liu of Montreal and Stephanie Desjardins-Labelle of Gatineau, Que.

Lee, Mackie and Willis advanced to Monday’s all around final. “The team did very well,” said Mackie.  “I was proud to be a member.  We all went out there and did our job.  It would have meant a lot to get a medal at these Games but we’re gaining some incredible experience.”

In the men’s team event, Puerto Rico won the gold medal with Brazil second at and the U.S., third.  The Canadians were seventh.  The Canadian gymnasts were Peter Andersen of Surrey, B.C., A.J. Rayment of Caledon, Ont., Hugh Smith of Dartmouth, N.S., and Jared Walls of Edmonton, a veteran of the 2003 Pan Am Games team that was also seventh.

Walls qualified third for the high bar final while Rayment qualified eighth for the vault final.  Smith qualified for Sunday’s all around final. “We’re pretty happy with our performance, pretty much everyone hit their routines,” said Walls, 24.  “It’s a great experience.  You learn how to perform in front of a large and loud crowd and in turn that creates some pressure.  We did well.”

Susan Natrass fulfills lifelong dream with opening ceremonies of Pan Am Games.
The Edmonton Journal

RIO DE JANEIRO - Veteran shooter Susan Nattrass is still vibrating with pride about being asked to carry Canada’s flag into Maracana Stadium for the Pan Am Games opening ceremonies tonight.

But she was shaking with claustrophobic fear Thursday after being stranded in the elevator for five minutes on her way down from her ninth-floor room to the Team Canada flag-raising at the Pan Am Games athletes village.

“Being claustrophobic, it was not a good experience,” the former Edmonton resident laughingly told a small knot of reporters after the ceremony. “I thought, ‘This is not a good way to start, they’re going to go without me!’ “

Eventually, the elevator went and Nattrass joined Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean and a cluster of other dignitaries, including COC chief executive officer Chris Rudge, COC president Michael Chambers and World Anti-Doping Agency executive-director Dick Pound for the traditional ceremony accorded, in turn, to all competing countries.

Asked about her pride in being named flagbearer on June 22, the 56-year-old, five-time Olympian’s eyes swiftly moistened and her voice choked with evident emotion. “When my federation asked me if they could put my name forward, I said, ‘Go ahead. You don’t have a hope in hell. “ ‘They’re not going to take a shooter, and certainly not an old one.’ “

Well, Nattrass was wrong about that and she was absolutely thrilled to accept what she considers a “huge, huge honour.” Nattrass will savour the moments tonight for all kinds of reasons, not least that her event—women’s single trap—is not contested until next Tuesday, four days after the opening ceremonies and five days after the elevator fiasco.

VICE-REGAL PEP TALK
During the flag-raising ceremony on Thursday, meanwhile, Her Excellency the Governor General gave Team Canada a right honourable pep talk, encouraging the athletes to make the most of the experience, and finishing off with a rousing “Go, Canada, Go!”

Jean, her filmmaker husband Jean-Daniel Lafond and their eight-year-old daughter Marie-Eden were the guests of honour at the traditional flag-raising ceremony for Canada in the early evening. An energetic Jean told about 200 Canadian officials, coaches and athletes in attendance to “open your eyes and your hearts and take full advantage of everything this experience has to offer.”
Calling the athletes “role models for each and every one of us,” Jean urged them to “smash every record at these Games.”

SEEKING GOV’T SUPPORT
COC president Michael Chambers was happy the Governor General is such a sincere supporter of amateur sport, but is still miffed the sport body’s request for the $150 million ($30 million over five years) in excellence funding for summer sports from the federal government went unsatisfied.

Canada has not hooked funding for Summer Olympic sports to hosting major events historically, but that may be about to change, Chambers said. “There’s no question we have to start looking at this strategically, rather than react to bids from (Canadian) cities,” Chambers said Thursday in a brief interview at the international zone of the Pan Am Games athletes village. “We should begin thinking beyond that.”

Chambers noted that three South American cities—Caracas, Venezuela; Bogota, Colombia; and Lima, Peru—have already submitted bids to play host to the 2015 Pan Am Games.

He said Canada will have to be more proactive in forcing the federal government’s hand on funding for summer sport. “When you get a Games in your country, it’s kind of like being on (railway) tracks and the light’s coming right at you,” Chambers said. “That seems to be what it takes to get the attention of the government.”

The federal government already has pledged $55 million toward the $110-million Own the Podium program to help Canadian athletes win gold at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver-Whistler.

Battered, but you can’t keep her down; Cora Campbell hopes surviving accident will help inspire Canadians to a berth in Beijing.
The Toronto Star

Even Bobby Baun would be impressed. Canadian water polo star Cora Campbell isn’t letting a run-in two days ago with an 18-wheeler stand in the way of trying to help the team qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Campbell went flying off her bicycle when a transport truck clipped her from behind on Tuesday, the same day the Canadian women’s water polo team was due to leave Montreal for the 2007 Pan Am Games. “She was lucky,” said assistant coach Ahmed el-Awadi of Toronto. “Another foot and the truck would have run her over.”

Fortunately for Campbell, there were no broken bones and she didn’t hit her head. Battered, bruised and bleeding, she called some teammates and they sprang into action. The team doctor was called, Campbell was rushed to emergency and a cut on her back was stitched up.

Team officials called the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport to find out what pain and anti-inflammatory medication she could take that isn’t on the banned list and bundled her onto the plane. “They gave me good drugs, they knocked me right out,” said Campbell. “I don’t remember much about the flight.”

Campbell is a tough customer in one very gruelling sport. The enduring image of her as an international competitor over 16 years is of her sporting a black eye and a ripped bathing suit.

Her litany of injuries in the pool have included a couple of separated shoulders - she played through the 2000 Sydney Olympics with one - three broken noses, a broken jaw and plenty of scars to remind her of the battles waged. “I was just hoping the truck would put something back in place,” joked the 33-year-old from Calgary.

Campbell was actually doing her last bit of cardio work before the trip when the accident happened. She was returning the mountain bike to team captain Krystina Alogbo. “The bike is pretty destroyed, which I felt bad about because it’s not my bike,” she said.

Campbell has been getting constant physiotherapy treatment in the athletes’ village and while she’s not expecting to play in the opener against Brazil tomorrow, she expects to be back for the next game against Puerto Rico on Sunday.

She’s critical to Canada’s hopes to qualify for next summer’s Olympics, which they can do here by winning the gold, but they’re definite underdogs against the world No. 1 U.S. team.

Campbell came back from retirement 18 months ago, more than anything because she felt the team lacked leadership and believed she could provide. She thinks her determination to still play despite the accident could serve as an inspiration to her younger teammates. “I hope so,” she said. “I hope that they’ll see how much I want it and that they say, ‘She got hit and she’s still going to be there giving it her all.’”

That fight is something Campbell has worried is missing from a team that she believes is more talented than any for which she’s played. True to her warrior nature, she says “They have to be ready to die to win.” “I just assumed everyone felt like that all the time, that you have to win,” she said. “It really is an attitude. It can be taught. These young girls can learn to raise the bar, to get out of the comfort zone and go beyond what they ever thought they were capable.

“You have to take what you thought you were capable of and do 10 times more.”

A million board feet of pine from B.C.’s beetle-ravaged forests will go into Oval structure.
Richmond News

When the TV cameras pan through the vast Richmond speed-skating oval in 2010, millions of viewers around the world will see how B.C. has parlayed an ecological disaster into an economic opportunity.

Arching above the speed-skating oval itself will be a 2.5-hectare roof made from wood infested by the mountain pine beetle. It is hoped the international exposure the Winter Olympics will bring will help B.C. market its wood, especially pine beetle wood. “The Richmond oval is a great showcase for this salvaged wood,” Gary Lunn, federal Minister of Natural Resources, said at a roof raising ceremony at the oval site Friday.

Using a crane brought in from Japan, construction workers put in place the first roof span on the oval. There will be 15 such spans, each one nearly 100 metres in length.

Between the spans will be panels of lodgepole pine salvaged from Interior forests that have been devastated by the mountain pine beetle. One million board feet of pine beetle wood will go into the panels, which will be arranged in wave patterns.

After B.C. won the bid to host the 2010 Winter Olympics, the province promoted the idea of using B.C. wood in venues like the oval in order to showcase B.C. wood. City of Richmond CAO George Duncan said the city agreed that, although more costly, wood would look better than a roof made of steel. “It makes it warmer,” Duncan said. “It takes away the industrial arena look.”

The provincial government kicked in $1.5 million to help the city cover the additional costs of using wood. The payoff is a showcase opportunity that is worth millions, said B.C. Forest Minister Rich Coleman.

“You might be able to buy one 30-second ad at the Superbowl for that amount of money,” Coleman said. “Can you imagine that there’s going to be about two billion people actually watching the Olympics in 2010? And every time there’s a break in the action, somebody’s going to talk about this building and the wood.”

The oval is scheduled to open in the fall of 2008. “We’re going to be ready well in advance—on time and on budget,” Mayor Malcolm Brodie said.

Wood infested by the mountain pine beetle is also known as blue pine, because the fungi from the insect stains it blue.