5 Team Canada sports to watch this weekend: April 19-21
It’s shaping up to be an action-packed weekend with Paris 2024 qualification on the line for some Team Canada athletes, including race walkers at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships in Antalya, Turkey, and sailors at the Last Chance Regatta in Hyères, France.
Canadian track and field athletes will take on the first event of the Diamond League circuit in Xiamen, China, while Canadian divers are competing at the final World Aquatics Diving World Cup of the season in Xi’an, China. The World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship kicks off this weekend in Oestersund, Sweden, while the Beach Pro Tour Elite16 makes a stop in Tepic, Mexico.
Here’s what you don’t want to miss:
Athletics
The 2024 Diamond League circuit is kicking off this weekend in Xiamen, China, with several Canadian headliners set to compete.
Sarah Mitton will compete in the women’s shot put. Last season saw Mitton snag her first Diamond League victory, as well as two silver medals on the circuit. She topped off her successful season with a silver medal at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest in August. This achievement marked Canada’s first-ever world championship medal in the women’s shot put.
Mitton co-captained Team Canada at the world championships alongside 800m runner Marco Arop, who also made history at the event by capturing Canada’s first ever gold medal in the event. Both Arop and Mitton will be athletes to watch in Xiamen and on the road to Paris 2024.
READ: Shot putter Sarah Mitton on her Olympic goals and inspiring the next generation
Fellow Tokyo 2020 Olympian Regan Yee will also be on the start line Xiamen, racing the 3000m steeplechase. Xiamen is the first of 15 Diamond League stops over the course of the season, with the Diamond League Final taking place in Brussels in September.
But Xiamen isn’t the only big meet happening in the athletics world this weekend. The World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships are taking place in Antalya, Turkey, on Sunday. The competition is a qualifying event for the marathon race walk mixed relay at Paris 2024.
The marathon mixed relay event is new to the Olympic programme, replacing the men’s 50km race. The mixed relay event will see teams of one man and one woman complete the marathon distance of 42.195km in stages of 12.195km (man), 10km (woman), 10km (man) and 10km (woman).
Canada will be represented in Antalya by veteran Canadian race walker Evan Dunfee and up-and-coming talent, Olivia Lundman, who is coached and mentored by Dunfee.
“It’s really cool to have this potential teammate whom I’m also helping guide along her journey,” Dunfee said, “Olivia’s upside potential is huge and we just need that one race.”
Diving
The third and final World Aquatics Diving World Cup of the season takes place this weekend in Xi’an, China.
Caeli McKay and Kate Miller will once again team up for the women’s 10m synchro event, the final of which takes place on Thursday evening. The pair, who qualified for Paris 2024 on the back of their result at the World Championships last February, won a bronze medal at the second stage of the World Cup in Berlin last month. McKay will also take part in the women’s 10m platform event, the final of which takes place on Sunday; Elaena Dick is the other Canadian competing in the individual event.
Rylan Wiens will be in action in the men’s 10m event on Sunday, an event in which he won a silver medal at the Berlin stage. The diver has booked his ticket to Paris 2024 in the 10m synchro event alongside Nathan Zsombor-Murray, and will be aiming for one of the two places in the men’s 10m individual event at the Canadian Diving Trials, which take place from 17 to 19 May.
Beach Volleyball
Canadian beach volleyball players are in action at the Beach Pro Tour Elite16 event in Tepic, Mexico. The duo of Brandie Wilkerson and Melissa Humana-Paredes will play in Pool D of the main draw alongside teams from Mexico and Brazil.
Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes posted a strong start to their 2024 season with a silver medal at the previous Elite16 event in Doha, Qatar, in March. The Canadians fell to the Brazilian team of Barbara Seixas and Carol Salgado, one of the teams they will face during pool play at this tournament.
Fellow Canadians Sarah Pavan and Molly McBain will play in Pool B along with teams from the United States, Spain and Italy.
On Thursday afternoon, Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes will play Tainá Bigi and Victoria Lopes of Brazil, while Pavan and McBain will face off against Liliana Fernаndez and Paula Soria of Spain.
Curling
After winning gold at the Women’s World Curling Championship and silver at the Men’s Worlds, Canada kicks off the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship on Saturday.
The duo of Kadriana and Colton Lott, gold medallists at the most recent Canadian Championships, will be wearing the colours of Team Canada for this world championship, which runs until 27 April in Oestersund, Sweden.
The 20 teams in Sweden are divided into two groups of 10, with Canada in Group A alongside Australia, China, South Korea, the United States, New Zealand, Scotland, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the Czech Republic. The teams in each group will play each other once in a round robin, then the teams finishing first in each group will go straight into the semi-finals, which will take place next Friday, while the second- and third-placed teams will have to compete in the play-offs just beforehand to determine which teams will get the other two places in the semi-finals. The bronze and gold medal finals will take place on Saturday 27 April.
Over the first weekend of the tournament, the Canadians take on New Zealand on Saturday at 8 a.m. ET, before playing the Czech Republic on Sunday at 4 a.m. ET, followed by the Netherlands at noon ET. On Monday at 8 a.m. ET, Canada will take on South Korea.
At last year’s World Mixed Doubles in Gangneung, Canadians Jennifer Jones and Brent Laing finished fourth after losing in the bronze medal match. Since the first World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship in 2008, Canada has won silver twice, in 2017 and 2019, and bronze twice, in 2009 and 2018.
Sailing
Ten Canadian sailors will take to the waters of Hyères, France, this weekend for the aptly named Last Chance Regatta. The regatta is the final opportunity for athletes to qualify boats for their countries leading into Paris 2024.
In the ILCA 7 class, Ryan Anderson, Luke Ruitenberg and Norman Struthers (Toronto, ON-RCYC) will aim to finish within the top three countries that are not already qualified, in order to earn one of the last spots available. Should they be successful, Ruitenberg would represent the Canada following Sail Canada’s qualification process which ended at the Princess Sofia Trophy Regatta.
Mac Morrin will need to finish amongst the top five countries not already qualified for Paris in men’s kiteboarding to earn a spot for Canada.
In the iQFoil class, Nikola Girke and Cyrus Lai have prequalified to be nominated by Sail Canada for Paris 2024. They each need to finish in the top five in the women’s and men’s competitions, respectively, to qualify to be nominated for Paris.
The Nacra 17 teams comprised of Galen Richardson and Madeline Gillis, as well as Caspar Lenz Anderson and Coralie Vittecoq will also race in Hyères. Richardson and Gillis are in the lead as part of the Canadian qualification process following the first of two events. To get a spot for Paris, Canada will need to finish amongst the top three nations not already qualified.
The Last Chance Regatta will be held in conjunction with French Olympic Week, a regatta which serves as preparation for the Paris 2024 Games. Sarah Douglas and Clara Gravely will represent Canada in the ILCA 6 class, as will Emily Bugeja, Nataliya Leshko and Marie-Ève Mayrand in women’s kiteboarding. Douglas has secured the qualification for nomination in the ILCA 6, and Bugeja leads the Canadian qualification process for women’s kiteboarding after two events.