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Newsletter by Keiran Gorsky, Dan Plouffe, Tyler Reis-Sanford, Martin Cleary & Farrah Philpot
Kanata’s Josh Adamson won his 15th consecutive match in national competition Saturday at the 2025 Canada Summer Games in St. John’s, NL en route to winning a unique triple Canadian crown.
Just days removed from winning Tennis Canada U16 boys’ singles and doubles championships in Toronto, the March Tennis Club player won every set of his six matches to propel Ontario to the Canada Games gold medal in the mixed team competition.
Drums and cowbells sounded off at Rogers Tennis Dome as Ontario and Quebec players cheered on their teammates between every point. Adamson won his final match 7-5, 6-4 over Volodymyr Gurenko as Ontario clinched the title by winning the first four matches of their series.
“In tennis, it doesn’t usually happen,” Adamson said of the chorus of drums, cheers and whistles between rallies at the Davis Cup-style competition. “It’s so fun.”
Days after Adamson bested Antoine Genereux in straight sets during the preliminary rounds, he was dealt a different challenge in the fast-serving Gurenko, two years his senior and undefeated at the Canada Games up to the final.
Gurenko managed to break Adamson early on, going up 4-1 in the first set. Adamson wound up further and further away from his baseline, back figuratively and almost literally against the wall.
He eventually found the perfect compromise spot from which he could consistently meet serves and apply enough backspin to give Gurenko a meaningful challenge on returns.
“I backed up more than I usually would,” Adamson noted in a post-match interview with the Ottawa Sports Pages’ Keiran Gorsky. “I was just trying to put as many in the court as I could.”
With that, Gurenko’s weapon seemed all but stolen away. Adamson broke him back shortly thereafter, and did so three more times over the course of the match. Proceedings were frequently broken up by Gurenko’s coach, who grew increasingly agitated with the persistent crowd noise between points. Adamson kept his cool at every juncture even as the coach bickered and bickered with the umpire.
“They started to get a little more nervous and I just took advantage of that,” Adamson indicated.
Britannia sailors leave St. John’s with medals, unexpected experiences
The winds picked up and the tides turned as summer returned to its temperate normalcy in Newfoundland. The unrelenting heat gave way to a frost advisory in the morning as Britannia Yacht Club sailors Evania Lovshin and Brodie Sorensen scrambled to stay in medal position. At the end of a long week, they both managed it, Sorensen taking home the silver and Lovshin clinging onto bronze.
Sailing, sailors will universally attest, is as much in the head as on the water. Miserable sailors make mediocre sailors, and so, Lovshin upped her calorie intake and bundled herself in heavy clothes in what she described as a fight to keep her energy.
“It’s a real mental game,” Lovshin told Gorsky in an interview before her first race Saturday. “If you can get over how cold you are and how miserable you feel, it’s like a whole other world.”
It’s been an all-around rollercoaster of a competition for the Britannia sailor from Chelsea who competes for Team Quebec. Out on Conception Bay, Lovshin had alternated between winning her races and getting disqualified on penalties.
“The jury and me have been seeing each other a lot,” she smiled.
Newly returned from an international regatta with towering waves, it took some time for Lovshin to realize she didn’t have to push quite so hard as before. As her infractions piled up, she had to be careful to keep a cool head in the scorching heat.
“You gotta stay respectful,” she said of her interactions with the race officials on the water. “But I might’ve said a thing or two.”
Lovshin settled into a steadier rhythm for race five through seven, winning each of those to propel herself into third place in the single-handed women’s ILCA. She finished second and third in the final two races of the competition to score 30 placement points overall, behind Claire Daley of Nova Scotia’s winning total of 21 and ahead of Ontario’s Melissa O’Connor at 36.
Whatever the conditions, Lovshin and Sorensen are both content to finally be logging consistent racing time. Postponements aren’t so uncommon in sailing, where racers are always subject to the whims of the wind and water. Sailors have nevertheless been the hardest done by in St. John’s, having lost two full days of competition. They ultimately were only able to complete nine of the 10 scheduled races.
“Wildfires is a bit of a new one,” Sorensen quipped.
Competitors knew of the risk beforehand, Sorensen explained, but they were relatively confident the fire would go on smouldering in the distance. Things immediately took a turn for the worse when they arrived in town.
“I could see, on my way in, this huge cloud of smoke,” he recounted.
Roads began to close down as the town of Conception Bay South was placed under evacuation alert. Athletes began to fear what might become of their boats stationed at the Royal Newfoundland Yacht Club if worse came to worst.
Even so, when their races were officially postponed, people didn’t panic. They occupied their time by hopping from event to event and cheering on their provincial teammates. Sorensen also had the opportunity to go for a hike at Signal Hill.
Absent one disqualification for a penalty turn in his sixth race, Sorensen placed in the top three in every race leading up to Saturday’s final race. With Nova Scotia’s Sullivan Nakatsu far ahead in first and B.C.’s Andre Deseau hot on his tail in third, Sorensen opted to play it safe.
“I don’t need to win every race,” he underlined in an interview on Friday. “I feel pretty comfortable in my position right now.”
He stayed true to his word on their final day of competition, sailors completing just a single race. Sorensen finished in fourth and Lovshin wound up in second to retain their respective positions in the fleet.
Ottawa pair settle for silver in men’s basketball
The Ontario men’s basketball team rallied late but came up just short in the gold medal game against Alberta, losing 72-69 at before a jam-packed crowd at The Works Field House. Ottawa’s Godson Okokoh put in a powerful two-way shift, finishing second on his team with 17 points and tallying seven rebounds in the nighttime clash to conclude week 1 of the Games.
Trailing by eight points in the final quarter, it was Okokoh’s three-pointer with six minutes remaining that got Ontario back within striking distance. Less than two minutes later, the game was knotted at 67 apiece.
Okokoh had two more chances to hook one in his wheelhouse near the low post, but the attempts both skittered off the rim. Though Ontario led by as many as five in the second quarter, it was their abysmal three-point percentage and inability to contend with Alberta in the paint that prevented them from repeating as Canada Games champs. Okokoh’s late three was one of just five they made all night long.
Ashbury College student Emmanuel Oko-Oboh, meanwhile, logged 4:15 of playing time off the bench.
In women’s basketball, Quebec capped off their Canada Games with a 70-62 win over Saskatchewan in the fifth place game. Capital Courts Academy’s Daniella Appoh scored nine points in her final outing.
The Cyclery’s Cadie Geetsema placed 22nd in the women’s criterium cycling race, while her Ontario teammate Elly Moore earned a silver medal.
Week 1 in the books, with big bounty for Team Ottawa
And with that, the first week of the Canada Games has wrapped up, and local athletes will be leaving St. John’s with a grand total of 53 medals from the opening week of competition!
If you want to relive any of those many magical moments, you can find all our coverage at OttawaSportsPages.ca/Ottawa-at-the-Canada-Games/.
Sunday is moving day in St. John’s as the first half of athletes move out and make way for a new set in the second half of the Games.
We’ll be taking a day to rest ourselves to get recharged and try to keep up with 20 more local athletes ready to compete in artistic swimming, athletics, baseball, diving, soccer, volleyball and wrestling in week 2. We’ll be back on Monday night to get you primed for all that action.
Ottawa at the Canada Games Daily Newsletter
A huge team of 48 Ottawa athletes is competing at the St. John’s 2025 Canada Summer Games in Newfoundland. The Ottawa Sports Pages will be sending out a free daily email newsletter with recaps, previews and profiles throughout the Aug. 9-24 national youth multi-sport event.
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