By Dan Plouffe
Courtnay Pilypaitis picked up right where she left off. The Ottawa native was team MVP in Canada’s last-chance Olympic qualification tournament, and the 24-year-old guard continued to make a real name for herself internationally in helping Canada reach the playoff round in London.
“To represent your country is a great honour, but to exceed expectations and get into the top-8 is huge for Canada Basketball,” Pilypaitis said in a Canadian Olympic Committee media release.
Canada’s worst margin of defeat was only nine points – against world #2 Australia in the preliminary round, after their berth the playoff round was already secure. The team’s key victory was a 79-73 upset over Brazil when Pilypaitis tied for a team-high 14 points with veteran Kim Smith.
The Canadians, who beat the host Brits handily, also came close to knocking off favoured Russia and France, which could have helped their seeding leading into a quarter-final matchup with world #1 USA.
Back injury sidelines rower
Hampered by a recent back injury, Cristy Nurse of the Ottawa Rowing Club watched on as an alternate while the Canadian women’s eight won a silver medal. Morgan Jarvis, also of ORC, finished second in the ‘C’ final for 14th place overall in the men’s lightweight double sculls.
Midway through the Games, Mo Zhang could lay claim to the second-best result by an Ottawa athlete. The 23-year-old made it through her first two matches in the women’s singles table tennis event before getting stopped by an Austrian competitor in the round of 64. Zhang topped Qatar 4-0 and Turkey 4-3.
Olympic rookie Pierre-Luc Hinse lost 4-3 in his first match against a Latvian, while Andre Ho fell 4-1 to a Nigerian.
Ho, Hinse and Eugene Wang were swept out by Japan in the first round of the men’s team event.
In canoe slalom, Mike Tayler of the Ottawa River Runners missed the top-15 cutoff for the semi-final round, placing 20th overall.
For the second Olympics in a row, Sherraine Schalm of the Ottawa Fencing Club and judoka Nicolas Tritton, formerly of Takahashi Dojo, experienced similar fates at the Games. Each fell to opponents ranked higher than them in their first bouts.
Schalm, ranked 26th in women’s epee, fell to the world’s 12th-ranked athlete, while Tritton fell to the world #6 in the men’s 73 kg division.