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Newsletter By Adam Beauchemin, Jackson Starr, Dan Plouffe & Kaitlyn LeBoutillier
Ariane Bonhomme and the Canadian women’s team pursuit track cycling squad were battling more than just their opponents as they narrowly advanced in today’s qualifying time trials.
On top of fighting against the clock in the four-kilometre race, the Canadians were dealing with a recent bout of illness, yet they managed to secure the eighth and final advancing spot with a time of 4:12.205 — 0.242 seconds faster than the ninth-place Irish team.
“In the last few days, a few of the girls became sick. I was one of them, and yesterday afternoon I started feeling sick,” Bonhomme said in French via the Canadian Olympic Committee. “Fortunately, we got a grip on it pretty quickly and I started antibiotics a couple hours after falling ill, but I’m sure that I wasn’t at 100% on the track today — my stomach still feels sick.”
The 29-year-old Ottawa Bicycle Club product from Gatineau is the sole returning cyclist from the Tokyo team that nearly brought home a bronze medal. Today, Bonhomme was competing alongside rookies Maggie Coles-Lyster, Erin Atwell and Sarah Van Dam.
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The Canadians were fourth on the track and didn’t have the power they needed to climb the time trial rankings. Atwell dropped out of the race shortly after the 2000m mark, which was earlier than most other rival squad’s fourth riders opted to exit the race.
“We were hoping for a better time, but we still advanced past the qualification. I know myself and the other girls who were sick on the team, we’re feeling better and better by the hour,” Bonhomme added. “We will continue to feel better and we’ll try to fight for our place in the medal rounds tomorrow.“
Just to add a further kick to the gut, the Canadian cyclists had to put in extra work after their race had officially ended, since the officiating crew seemingly had not rang the bell to signal the final lap. The cyclists peddled on for roughly an extra 500 m.
Bonhomme’s teammate Coles-Lyster poked fun at the situation on Instagram.
“We’re on to the qualifiers tomorrow, which is great. We can all sleep easy tonight. But we’re also going to take this as our official application to the world record books for longest team pursuit at an Olympic Games,” Coles-Lyster said. “Team Pursuit is usually 16 laps, we did 18 because they messed up. Love a 4.5 km team pursuit, that felt great.”
Ottawa kayakers will paddle another day following debut Olympic heats
Toshka Besharah-Hrebacka and Natalie Davison of the Rideau Canoe Club made their Olympic debuts in front of 24,000 fans in the first women’s kayak sprint events of the Paris Games.
The day started off on a less than desirable note for the Canadians in the four-person 500 m kayak sprint heat, where Davison, 32, and Besharah-Hrebacka, 21, raced alongside fellow Olympic rookies Courtney Stott and Riley Melanson.
The Canadians could have earned a spot in the finals with a top-3 finish in their five-team heat. However, the paddlers finished with a time of 1:37.87, the slowest on the day.
Canada and the other teams that did not qualify for the finals will now be competing in Thursday’s four-team semi-finals where they will have a second shot at advancing to the finals with a top-2 finish.
Still, the Canadians’ time may have been at least part, due to strategy — the Canadians fell behind the other teams quickly, and broadcasters speculated that the team may have let their foot off the gas pedal to save their strength for the upcoming elimination race.
Davison and Stott also had a second race today, in the kayak doubles 500 m.
Stott and Davison placed third in the qualification heat with a time of 1:44.35, missing out on the top-2 finish needed to advance directly into the semi-finals.
The duo was relegated to the quarterfinals, which also took place today. They improved upon their time in the second race, finishing in 1:42.58 — nearly two seconds ahead of their earlier effort – and they needed every bit of that improvement as they advanced by all of .03 over Denmark.
Their quarterfinal performance earned them fourth in their heat and the duo will now advance to the semifinals. Davison will be seeking another top-4 finish in Friday’s semifinals to advance to the A final.
Before their first competition, Besharah-Hrebacka posted a heartfelt reflection in advance of her Olympic debut:
Jessica Gaudreault and Canada fall to Spain in water polo quarters
Jessica Gaudreault and the Canadian women’s water polo team’s podium ambitions came to an end today with their 18-8 loss to the powerhouse Spanish squad. The team will now compete in the 5-8 classifications.
The 1-3 Canadians came into the match as the heavy underdogs against undefeated Spain in their quarterfinal match at La Defense Arena in Paris.
The Spaniards opened up the scoring quickly, and peppered goalkeeper Gaudreault with many unblockable shots throughout the game. The Spanish attack proved too much for the Canadians, who spent much of the match trying to chip away at a massive Spanish lead.
Despite the loss today, tournament play continues on for the Canadians who will continue competing against Italy, Greece and Hungary for their final positioning in the 5-8 classification.
Lauren Gale fails to advance past repechage in 400 m
Lauren Gale of the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club did not advance past today’s repechage in the women’s 400 m sprint.
Running in the third heat, Gale finished with a time of 52.68 and placed sixth in her heat. Gale improved upon the time she ran in her first heat by more than a half-second, but was still behind her personal-best time of 50.47 from June.
“I got cleared the day before competing,” Gale noted via Athletics Canada. “Was not doing well, lost a lot of weight and just ran with a lot of heart today more so than legs.”
Gale, who was one of six runners selected for the Canadian 4×400 m relay team for the Tokyo Olympics but did not compete, still has a chance to chase a podium finish in the Paris 4×400 m relay, which begins Friday.
Ottawa Olympians in action on August 7:
Preview: ‘Nothing to lose’ for Ariane Bonhomme in final pursuit team races
Track cyclist Ariane Bonhomme is the lone Ottawa Olympian in action tomorrow at the Paris Games.
She’ll be competing in round 1 of the women’s team pursuit event, followed by a later race to determine the team’s final placement.
Canada was the eighth and final qualifier for the second race of the competition in today’s time trial.
Canada will be facing off against Germany, the defending champions, on the other side of the track in their first race Wednesday. The German team features three returning members from the victorious Tokyo Olympic team and finished fifth in today’s time trial.
By missing the top-4 in qualifying, the Canadians can finish no better than third in the final standings. Should they post one of the two fastest times outside of the winners of the USA vs Great Britain and New Zealand vs Italy heats, they would advance to race for the bronze medal.
Bonhomme, the lone returning member of Canada’s pursuit team from the last Olympics, can draw on her past experience from the Tokyo Games, to share with her new teammates.
In Tokyo, the Canadians were in the same position – last in qualifying – but set a Canadian record to earn a chance at the bronze medal, which they wound up losing to USA.
That race marked the end of an era. All three of Bonhomme’s veteran teammates — Annie Foreman-Mackey, Allison Beveridge and Georgia Simmerling — retired after the Tokyo Games.
Bonhomme, the 29-year-old Ottawa Bicycle Club product from Gatineau, is now the one offering leadership and experience alongside three Olympic rookies in Paris.
“They’re just so excited. It just makes me so happy,” Bonhomme said in a pre-Games interview with the Ottawa Sports Pages’ Adam Beauchemin.
“I think there’s a bit of a different mindset,” she added. “We have nothing to lose in a way.”
That mentality should be doubly applicable after several members of the team fell ill in advance of their first race.
“We really have great doctors with us,” Bonhomme indicated today via the COC. “It’s going to be a lot of rest, a lot of liquids, and a good meal after losing a bit of time.”
You can read our full pre-Games feature on Bonhomme here.
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