HIGH ACHIEVERS WEEKEND WRAP: Swimmer Julie Brousseau ‘expected a little more’ at Commonwealth Games

By Martin Cleary

Julie Brousseau of the Nepean Kanata Barracudas Swim Club is very familiar with the thrill of winning multiple medals at major swimming competitions.

In 2022 and 2023, she excelled in two international and one domestic championships, which played a significant developmental role in her qualifying for her first Summer Olympics in Paris in 2024.

At the 2022 Canada Summer Games, Brousseau won an astounding 11 medals, which tied the record for most individual and relay honours in a single competition, with six gold, one silver and four bronze.

During the 2023 world junior swimming championships in Netanya, Israel, she collected seven medals from two silver- and five-bronze medal performances.

At the 2023 Pan Am Games, she left Santiago, Chile, with two gold and one bronze medals.

But this week’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, has had an entirely different feel to it for Brousseau, who will enter her junior year at the University of Florida next month.

Brousseau didn’t win a medal in her four scheduled individual races. But there’s a slight chance she could come away with a relay medal on the final day of competition Wednesday, if the coaching staff feels she would be a good fit in the women’s 4×100-metre medley.

The individual races were a struggle for Brousseau, who has had her season affected by a lengthy schedule and some sickness.

Read More: NCAA swimmer Julie Brousseau returns home for a quick ‘rest’ before Commonwealth Games, Pan Pacs

In her first two races at the Commonwealth Games, she wasn’t fast enough to qualify for the 400- and 200-metre freestyle finals. Instead, she was one of two reserves for both races.

In the 400-metre freestyle, Brousseau was fifth in her heat in four minutes, 11.90 seconds, which left her 0.80 seconds outside the fourth and final qualifying berth from her fast heat. Competing in the 200-metre freestyle heats, she was fourth in 2:00.71, which left her 2.24 seconds outside of qualifying for the final.

Monday’s 400-metre individual medley was a high point for Brousseau as she scored the sixth-best time of 4:51.45 after the two heats and reached the evening final. Brousseau improved her time in the medal race, but so did her peers as she remained sixth in 4:45.43. Jenna Forrester of Australia won in 4:31.19.

Brousseau was scheduled to compete in the 800-metre freestyle on Tuesday, but withdrew as she wanted to focus on supporting the Canadian team in the relays, if the coaches needed her.

The closest she has come so far to experiencing her first Commonwealth Games medal was in Tuesday’s mixed 4×100-metre medley relay. The Canadian team of Kylie Masse, Oliver Dawson, Joshua Liendo and Ella Jansen placed fourth in the final in 3:44.23, which left them 0.53 seconds out of third place and 3.77 seconds behind champion Australia.

Brousseau raced for Canada in the qualifying heat Tuesday morning and recorded the fourth fastest time of 3:51.80 to lift Canada into the evening final. If Canada had won a medal in the final, Brousseau would not have been awarded a medal, despite being part of that team. But she could have felt like she played a big role in the cause.

“I’m not too thrilled how it went,” Brousseau said in a phone interview with High Achievers about her individual races. “I wanted to see what I could do.

“It has been a long year and I’ve had sickness. I expected a little more. But it (races) kept me motivated. I knew it would be tough to get on the (medal) podium.”

Brousseau raced the 400-metre individual medley on Tuesday, but a knee injury two years ago and its recovery has limited her participation in that event.

Instead of being up with leaders and challenging for medals at the Games, Brousseau has been competing in the middle of the pack.

“Honestly, I’m used to that,” she offered. “At the Canadian swim trials, I raced against (world record holder) Summer McIntosh. I learned a long time ago to focus on myself and stay in my own lane.”

As swimming and para swimming are scheduled to finish their schedules on Wednesday, athletes staged their second day of competition in athletics on Tuesday.

On a rain-soaked track, Gatineau’s Audrey Leduc placed sixth in the women’s 100-metre final in a disappointing 11.09 seconds. Zoe Hobbs of New Zealand earned the gold medal in a personal-best and continental-record 10.93 seconds.

Leduc received a bye through the Monday heats and was second in her Tuesday semifinal in 11.01 seconds to reach the medal race.

“It’s amazing to be here as part of my first international final in the 100 metres. I’m so grateful for that, but it’s not what I wanted,” Leduc told Athletics Canada following the wet final.

“I wish I could have run under 11 seconds, but it didn’t happen. I’ll try in the 200 metres to get a medal. That’s my next objective.”

Ottawa’s Eliezer Adjibi of CANI Athletics saw his debut Games last only one race in the men’s 100 metres. He placed second in his heat, but his time of 10.31 seconds didn’t advance him to the semifinals.

Adjibi and Leduc are scheduled to compete in the respective men’s and women’s 200-metre heats Wednesday.

After missing the 2022 Commonwealth Games because of injury, Ottawa’s Lauren Gale of the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club wasn’t bothered by a false start and disqualification of Amani Kirnon of Montserrat in her women’s 400-metre heat. Gale remained focused and won her heat in 51.59 seconds, which was the second-best time as Obakeng Kamberuka of Botswana ran 51.54 seconds.

Gale is slated to run the women’s 400-metre semifinals on Thursday.

Ottawa Lions’ Maeliss Trapeau qualified for Wednesday’s scheduled women’s 800-metre semifinals by placing fourth in her heat with a tight qualifying time of 2:03.89.

ELA DAY-BÉDARD HELPS CANADA ADVANCE TO WOMEN’S BASEBALL WORLD CUP

Gatineau’s Ela Day-Bédard is headed to the WBSC Women’s Baseball World Cup Final next year in Rockford, Illinois.

Despite being outscored 14-13 by No. 10 Australia with a decisive two-run, walk-off seventh inning on the final day of round-robin competition, No. 3 Canada managed to finish third overall in the six-country qualifying tournament to earn a World Cup berth.

Day-Bédard, a shortstop, had one hit in four plate appearances and scored one run in the final game.

Overall, the University of Ottawa student started and played in three games and collected one triple and one single in nine at-bats for a .222 batting average, was hit by a pitch three times and made three putouts and four assists in the field.

Day-Bédard now turns her attention to the inaugural season of the Women’s Pro Baseball League, which begins Saturday. She plays for the San Francisco Firebells.

DOUBLE-MEDAL EFFORT FOR BILL LEONARD AT ONTARIO OPEN WATER SWIM CHAMPIONSHIPS

Bill Leonard of Metcalfe won two medals in the men’s masters category at the Ontario open water swimming championships in Gravenhurst.

A noted marathon swimmer who crossed Lake Ontario in 2025, Leonard won the five-kilometre individual race in one hour, seven minutes and one second. He also was second in the one-kilometre individual race in 14:05, while Jordan Bell of ROC took ninth place in 16:52. Both swimmers are in the men’s 40-59 age group.

In the men’s open five-kilometre individual swim, Greater Ottawa Kingfish Swim Club’s Matteo Zewdie placed seventh overall and was third in the male standings in 1:05.51. Eli Leonard, who is Bill’s son, took 13th in 1:08.14. Zewdie and Leonard race in the boys’ 14-15 division.

Kingfish’s Max Laboissonnière, who is in the 12-13 age category, was seventh overall and the fifth male in the two-kilometre individual race in 27:51.

ANN-SOPHIE BOURGAULT’S GOLF CONSISTENCY CRUSHED ON FINAL DAY

At last week’s 112th Canadian women’s amateur golf championship at the Toronto Golf Club, Ann-Sophie Bourgault of Gatineau and the Royal Ottawa Golf Club struggled on the final day of the 72-hole tournament and tied for 64th place.

After registering three consecutive rounds of four-over-par 74, Bourgault shot an 83 in her fourth and final round and dropped 36 places in the standings.

Japan’s Rina Kawasaki won Canada’s national title by four strokes with a score of six-under 278 from rounds of 72-69-68-69.

CANADIAN U16 WOMEN’S WATER POLO INTO CLASSIFICATION ROUND AT WORLDS

Gillian Corkum and Naomi Jones of the Capital Wave Water Polo Club went 1-3 with the Team Canada women in the opening round of the World Aquatics U16 Water Polo Championships in Croatia.

Canada opened with a 16-2 victory over Zimbabwe before defeats to USA (13-7), Serbia (13-9) and Hungary (5-4 in a shootout following a 10-10 regulation game). Canada will now face Serbia again in the classification round.

Stanley Anderson and Ibrahim Dawoud of Capital Wave and Dragos Pirusca, Dmitriy Rebenko and Nikola Tesanovic of the Ottawa Titans will begin play for the Canadian men at the U16 worlds on Aug. 1.

Earlier this month, Titans coach Andras Szeri and player Hayes Courtney helped Canada to an 11th-place finish at the 2026 World Aquatics Men’s U18 Water Polo Championships in Portugal, which was Canada’s second-best finish ever at the U18 men’s worlds.

Capital Wave’s Lujayn Abdelfattah and Yasmine Sówka will play for Canada at the World Aquatics Women’s U18 Water Polo Championships in Spain from Aug. 16-23.

NEPEAN BMX BROTHERS RACE TO 15TH & 39TH AT UCI WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

At the 2026 UCI BMX Racing World Championships in Brisbane, Australia, Nepean BMX products Zakary and Jakob Kaiser placed 15th and 39th respectively in the men’s under-23 and junior events.

Jakob, 19, and Zakary, 18, both won silver medals at last year’s Canadian championships.