First week of Pan Am Games rousing success for Canada

Of course water polo started on the Wednesday before the opening ceremonies, and I kind of maybe overdid it a little bit. “I was confident, I wanted to win for the home crowd”.

The Pan-American Games baseball tournament have seen their fair share of dramatic comebacks. That’s when the Americans completely collapsed.

Coughlin, a 12-times Olympic medallist who had to settle for two silvers earlier this week after squandering leads, missed out on gold again and was held to a bronze in the 50 freestyle. His teammate Inaki Gomez captured the silver.

Sullivan defeated fellow Calgary cyclist Kate O’Brien 2-0 in the best-of-three final to give Canada a sweep of the top two medals in the event on the final day of the track cycling competition, dubbed Super Sunday.

If they can learn the lessons Brazil taught them today, there is a good chance Canada will end up with a medal in women’s soccer. Red Deer’s Keegan Soehn won gold in men’s trampoline, finishing with a score of 56.405 … Aaron Dornekamp and Carl English complete Canada’s roster for the Games, with competition in men’s basketball beginning July 21. Canada, which enters the quarter-final stage with a 2-1 record, outscored its opponents by a score of 16-6 in the preliminary round, including a dominant 12-1 win over the Dominican Republic. The women have won one silver, in 1999 in Winnipeg, and three bronze. “This means a lot to us and to be able to play in the gold medal game is something that we had circled on our calendar months ago and now we get that opportunity”. This evening she topped off her brilliant meet here in Toronto with an incredible 59.05 backstroke lead-off split in the women’s gold medal-winning 4x100m medley relay.

The USA now has 50 gold, 41 silver and 44 bronze medals to lead both the gold and overall table.

The Canadians rolled over Venezuela 101-38 in their opener before holding off Argentina 73-58. Canada’s Emily Batty and Catharine Pendrel pulled away from the pack in what essentially was a two-woman race. Jacqueline Simoneau of Saint-Laurent, Que., and Karine Thomas of Gatineau, Que., dominated the synchronized swimming duet, to win gold and clinch an Olympic berth. Katherine Gillis, Karli Johansen and Stephanie Norlander will all look to add to their team-leading three goals in Monday’s crucial matchup.

Canada earned a medal of every color tonight to close out their competition, including a gold medal and Games record performance by distance powerhouse Ryan Cochrane in the men’s 1500m freestyle.

Lawrence and Buchanan are expected to play for Canada the rest of the tournament.

Andre De Grasse, a 20-year-old who won both the 100 and 200 metres at the NCAA championships in stunning fashion, headlines a Canadian team that has numerous top-ranked athletes.

Going into the bottom of the 10th, Team Canada manager Ernie Whitt speedster Tyson Gilles (8th batter) at second base and Skyler Stromsmoe (9th batter) at first, bringing up leadoff man Sean Jamieson.

Overall, despite the loss, it was hard for the Canadian team to be too down on themselves. “With one million tickets sold and millions of Canadians tuning into the Games, there’s no doubt that Toronto and the region have embraced these once-in-a-lifetime Games”.