Canada’s first Tokyo 2020 Olympic medal won by women’s relay swimmers

Just arsenic successful 2016, the women’s 4×100 freestyle relay squad gave Canada its archetypal medal of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

This time, however, the medal was a much precious colour.

With prima swimmer Penny Oleksiak erstwhile again powering the anchor leg, the Canadians swam to a metallic medal successful Sunday’s race, finishing successful a clip of 3 minutes 32.78 seconds.

A fewer hours later, divers Jennifer Abel and Melissa Citrini-Beaulieu added different metallic connected a palmy time successful the pool. Abel and Citrini-Beaulieu recovered from a dilatory commencement and enactment unneurotic 3 beardown dives to scope the podium of the women’s three-metre synchronized platform.

In the relay, Kayla Sanchez of Toronto, Margaret Mac Neil of London, Ont., and Rebecca Smith of Red Deer, Alta., besides swam beardown legs to springiness Toronto’s Oleksiak the accidental to adjacent retired the race.

With the Australians acold up of the battalion en way to laying down a world-record clip of 3:29.69, the conflict for metallic came down to Oleksiak and American anchor swimmer Simone Manuel.

Oleksiak surged up and touched the partition conscionable earlier the American. The 21-year-old picked up her 5th Olympic medal, joining rower Lesley Thompson-Willie and runner Phil Edwards arsenic Canada’s astir decorated Summer Olympians.

“I deliberation it’s benignant of crazy,” Oleksiak said. “I deliberation we were each hopeful that we would get a medal.

“We didn’t cognize what medal it would truly be. I deliberation we each conscionable wanted one. For it to beryllium a silver, it’s beauteous brainsick I think.”

The Canadian women are looking to prime up wherever they near disconnected astatine the 2016 Rio Games, wherever they won six medals, including bronze successful the 4×100 freestyle relay. Oleksiak swam the anchor limb successful that race, too.

Earlier connected Sunday, Mac Neil besides precocious to Monday morning’s 100-metre butterfly final. The 21-year-old satellite champion successful the lawsuit posted the sixth-fastest clip successful the semifinals.

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In diving, Abel from Laval, Que., and Citrini-Beaulieu, from Saint-Constant, Que., overcame a dilatory commencement connected their archetypal 2 dives to decorativeness with a full people of 300.78.

The Chinese brace of Shi Tingmao and Wang Han finished archetypal with 326.4 points. Germany’s Lena Hentschel and Tina Punzel were 3rd with 284.97 points.

Abel picked up her 2nd Olympic medal. She won bronze successful the aforesaid lawsuit with Emilie Heymans astatine the 2012 London Games.

Citrini-Beaulieu is making her Olympic debut.

In boxing, Mandy Bujold’s eventful roadworthy to the Tokyo Olympics ended with a first-round nonaccomplishment to Nina Radovanovic of Serbia successful her opening bout.

The 11-time nationalist flyweight champion arrived successful Tokyo aft what she called the toughest combat of her career. She won a human-rights entreaty to the Court of Arbitration for Sport successful Lausanne, Switzerland, past period for an Olympic berth aft she’d initially been near retired of the mix.

“Yeah, perfectly this was the triumph for maine connected this journey,” Bujold said aft the loss. “Unfortunately, it didn’t hap successful the ring, but it happened extracurricular of the ring.”

After Bujold’s Olympic qualifier successful Buenos Aires was cancelled due to the fact that of rising COVID-19 cases successful Argentina, the International Olympic Committee’s Boxing Task Force opted to usage satellite rankings to find Tokyo berths.

The Task Force selected 3 planetary events for satellite rankings that Bujold, a 34-year-old from Kitchener, Ont., hadn’t competed successful due to the fact that of her gestation and post-partum recovery.

The CAS ruled June 30 that the Task Force indispensable see an accommodation for women who were large oregon postpartum during the qualifying period. Bujold had mislaid her archetypal entreaty to the IOC successful May, leaving the CAS arsenic her past accidental to container successful Tokyo.

Rowers Jessica Sevick of Strathmore, Alta., and Toronto’s Gabrielle Smith volition enactment for a medal aft finishing 2nd successful their women’s treble sculls semifinal. The brace precocious comfortably, finishing 4.59 seconds up of fourth-place France.

“I deliberation we tin physique connected what we conscionable did and transportation that relaxation and looseness. And I deliberation we tin besides instrumentality immoderate assurance from that and person a small spot much of a physique towards the enactment and a small much velocity successful the middle, to benignant of get retired successful beforehand and enactment relaxed,” Smith said.

There was besides disappointment for Canada’s rowers connected Tokyo Bay arsenic the men’s 4 vessel finished 5th successful its repechage and failed to beforehand to the ‘A’ final. The vessel includes 3 rookies and seasoned Will Crothers, who was portion of Canada’s silver-medallist men’s 8 squad astatine the 2012 Olympics successful London. The ‘B’ last could beryllium the 34-year-old’s past Olympic race.