There’s no point in running, you have to start on time, says an old saying. This is often true, but not all the time. Canada’s gymnasts demonstrated this a little on Saturday at the Paris Olympics.
A difficult first outing on the horizontal bar was redeemed by a crescendo performance that allowed the Canadian delegation to keep hope of participating in the final phase of the men’s gymnastics competition.
Zachary Clay, René Cournoyer, Félix Dolci, William Émard and Samuel Zakutney allowed Canada to collect 247.794 points, which gave them third place in the cumulative standings after the first round of qualifications, behind Great Britain (256.561) and the United States (253.229).
The top eight nations will advance to the team final.
At the individual level, Dolci (81.498) and Cournoyer (80.798) are the only Canadians who could obtain their pass for the final of the individual all-around competition.
In fencing, Canadian Fares Arfa almost reached the semi-finals of the men’s individual sabre event on Saturday at the Paris Games, after notably surprising the reigning triple Olympic champion.
Arfa, who is playing in his first career Games, lost 15-13 to South Korea’s Oh Sang-uk, ranked fourth in the world.
Earlier in the day, Arfa, 35e in the world, had knocked off the three-time reigning Olympic champion Aron Szilagyi, 15-8.
Rain disrupts tennis
Four Canadians, including two Quebecers, were expected to play on the outdoor courts at Roland Garros on the first day of the tennis tournament at the Paris Games on Saturday. The vagaries of Mother Nature meant that none of them played.
Laval’s Leylah Annie Fernandez was due to kick off the action at noon local time against Czech Karolina Muchova on court number 9. It was ultimately postponed due to rain.
Fernandez was also scheduled to play doubles with Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski on the same court. However, the match against the French tandem of Clara Burel and Varvara Gracheva was postponed until Sunday, as was the duel between Ontario’s Bianca Andreescu and Denmark’s Clara Tauson, also scheduled on court number 9.
In the men’s competition, Montrealer Félix Auger-Aliassime will also have to wait before playing his first round singles match against American Marcos Giron.
In addition, Summer McIntosh and the Canadian 4x100m freestyle relays reached the finals in the pool, the curtain-raiser for the swimming events at the Paris Games.
McIntosh, a 17-year-old Toronto native, qualified for the 400 freestyle final by finishing second in her heat and fourth overall.
Elsewhere, Quebec’s Mary-Sophie Harvey, Ontarian Penny Oleksiak, New Brunswick’s Brooklyn Douthwright and British Columbia’s Taylor Ruck posted the sixth-fastest time in the 4x100m freestyle relay, while Alberta’s Finlay Knox and Yuri Kisil and their Toronto teammates Javier Acevedo and Josh Liendo took fifth place ahead of the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay final.
The finals of the men’s and women’s 4x100m freestyle relays will be presented on Saturday evening.
In women’s cycling, Quebecer Olivia Baril finished 20the of the time trial. She covered the distance of 32.4 km in 43:03.58.
In the men’s race, Derek Gee stopped the clock at 38:28.17 over the same distance and finished 20th.ehim too.