Mohammed Ahmed of Canada falls during heat 1 at the Paris Olympics on Aug. 7, 2024.Phil Noble/Reuters
Ahmed tangled up
Mo Ahmed was in the top seven with about 400 metres left in his 5,000-metre heat when he tripped over the leg of a runner in front of him and took a fall. A handful of other runners fell not long after. The 33-year-old from St. Catharines, Ont., who earned silver in the event at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, got up and continued running but finished 16th with a time of 14 minutes 15.76 seconds. “We have watched the video several times with the WA [World Athletics] video referee and it was clear that Moh was not impeded or jostled before this happened and so it is considered his responsibility to avoid the athlete in front,” Athletics Canada said in a statement. Thomas Fafard of Repentigny, Que., did advance in eighth place in Heat 1 with a time of 14:09.37 at Stade de France.
Rebecca Petch of New Zealand leads Lauriane Genest of Canada, top left, during the women's keirin event, at the Summer Olympics on Aug. 7, 2024, in Paris, France.Ricardo Mazalan/The Associated Press
Others advance
In track cycling, Lauriane Genest of Levis, Que., and Kelsey Mitchell of Sherwood Park, Alta., advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s keirin by winning their repechage races. Genest won bronze in the event at the Tokyo Games, while Mitchell, the reigning Olympic individual sprint champion, was fifth. In sprint canoe, Michelle Russell of Fall River, N.S., and Riley Melanson of Dartmouth, N.S., both qualified for the women’s singles 500-metre semis. In the men’s 800, Edmonton’s Marco Arop qualified for Friday’s semi-finals finishing second in Heat 1 with a time of 1:45.74. Arop is the reigning world champion in the event. Mariam Abdul-Rashid of Oshawa, Ont., made it into the women’s 100 hurdles semi-finals grabbing one of three non-automatic qualifying spots with a time of 12.80 seconds and placing fifth in Heat 3.
Canada's Gabrielle Carle and Kadeisha Buchanan fights for the ball with Germany's Jule Brand during a women's quarter-final soccer match at the 2024 Summer Olympics on Aug. 3, 2024, at Marseille Stadium in Marseille, France. The game has been Canada's most-watched moment of the Paris Olympics to date.Daniel Cole/The Associated Press
CBC scores with women’s soccer quarter-final
CBC says Team Canada women’s soccer match against Germany has been the country’s most-watched moment of the Paris Olympics to date. The public broadcaster says 3.4 million viewers across CBC, Radio-Canada and RDS caught the end of Saturday’s quarter-final match. The nail-biter saw Canada fall to Germany in a shootout, eliminating any hopes for a medal. There was added attention on Canada’s women’s soccer team, which entered the knockout round with a six-point penalty from FIFA because of a drone spying scandal. The team previously won gold at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Paige Crozon, from Humboldt, Sask. chases a loose ball with China's Jiyuan Wan during a 3x3 basketball game at the Summer Olympics on July 31, 2024, in Paris.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Canada’s 3x3 hoops team moves on
PARIS – Canada’s 3x3 women’s basketball team came painfully close to the podium at the Paris Olympics. Emphasis on painful. After 10 gritty games, countless bumps and bruises, and three stitches, the Canadians finished fourth in their Olympic debut. “It feels like you lose the medal two times. You lose in the semis and then you lose in the bronze,” said Paige Crozon of Humboldt, Sask. “There’s no way to sugar coat it. It felt terrible. We came here with a podium finish in mind, so it was heartbreaking to come up short.” The Canadians advanced to the semi-finals where they battled with eventual gold medal winners Germany, dropping the spirited matchup 17-16 on a last-second shot. A 16-13 loss to the Americans in the bronze medal game followed.
Canadians Evan Dunfee and Olivia Lundman compete in the mixed race walk at the Paris Olympics on Aug. 7, 2024.Isabel Infantes/Reuters
Dunfee wears two hats
Canadian race walk athlete Evan Dunfee took on two roles in the Olympic debut of the marathon race walk mixed relay today as he acted as both competitor and coach. The 33-year-old from Richmond, B.C. teamed up with his student Olivia Lundman for a 20th place in the event, which was ultimately won by Spain. While their time was well behind the top finishers, the race was a valuable learning experience for the 21-year-old Lundman, who is in her first Olympics. Dunfee, 33, is a bronze medalist from Tokyo in the men’s 50-kilometre event, which is no longer on the Olympic program. The mixed relay replaces that event, and involves a male and female athlete walking a full marathon distance in alternating legs, with each athlete completing two approximately 10-kilometre stretches.