Canada not going to reach the podium on Wednesday at Beijing Games
Published Wednesday August 20th, 2008
BEIJING - Canada's march to the podium was interrupted on Wednesday, as a light day of finals and some disappointing results ended the country's four-day medal streak.
The Canadian softball team challenged a strong Australian team in semifinal action before falling 5-3.
Ivett Gonda, considered a medal hopeful in taekwondo, lost her first bout in the preliminaries.
And Marie-Pier Boudreau Gagnon and Isabelle Rampling finished sixth in the women's synchro swimming duet final.
So Canada will stay at 13 medals - two gold, six silver and five bronze - for another day.
The softball squad nearly changed that. Considered an underdog against the Australians, Canada was tied 3-3 heading into the fifth inning.
But Kerry Wyborn's two-out shallow single to left field in the sixth scored a pair of runs for Australia.
Canada, which mustered four hits in the game, didn't get a runner on base the final two innings as Australia played airtight defence.
"We had some hard hits go right at them and unfortunately I left some balls leave the ball park," said pitcher Lauren Bay Regula of Trail, B.C.
Bay Regula, the sister of Boston Red Sox outfielder Jason Bay, put in another strong performance for Canada. She threw a complete game, surrendering five hits and striking out nine.
Australia hit solo homers in the second and fourth innings, but Canadian head coach Lori Sippel didn't want to take Bay Regula out of the game.
"I kept checking in with Lauren to see and her velocity was still up," Sippel said. "She had good bend. She'd come up with some big strikeouts and got some good quick outs at times and then at other times, she struggled.
"You have to tip your hat to Australia. If Lauren made a mistake or was even close to a mistake, they were all over it and that was the difference in the game and certainly what kept them in it."
Canada went up 3-2 in the third, when Megan Timpf of Port Dover, Ont., drew a bases-loaded walk, and Alison Bradley of Pinkerton, Ont., followed by lining a single up the middle to bring two more runs around.
The team had struggled leading into the semifinal game, failing to score a run in their three previous contests.
Bay Regula said their final performance offered some hope.
"Those last few games, we know we're a better team than what the last few games showed and this (game) is more indicative of the type of team we are," she said.
Gonda, meanwhile, felt less positive after her loss.
The Port Moody, B.C., native and coach Shin Wook Lim thought her result, a 2-0 loss to Hanna Zajc of Sweden in the 49-kilogram class, was affected by unfair judging.
Lim suggested that Chinese judge Lei Zhao may have been stingy with points for Gonda because she would have faced a Chinese athlete in the next round.
"I can't say for sure but she made a point but (didn't receive) a point," Lim said. "Must be the machine's broken, I don't know. Other coaches were surprised. It's not only coming from me emotionally."
They launched a protest with the hopes of a rematch before the start of the afternoon session but it was unsuccessful.
"I felt really good," said the 22-year-old Gonda. "I was doing exactly what my coach told me. I was kicking the points, I don't know why the points weren't going up. I think I made it pretty obvious."
Boudreau Gagnon, from Riviere-du-Loup, Que., and Rampling, from Burlington, Ont., had 95.333 points after their routine. Russians Anastasia Davydova and Anastasia Ermakova repeated as Olympic champions with 99.251 points.
Canada's had mixed results in canoeing and kayaking.
Montreal's Thomas Hall finished first in his heat to qualify for the Olympic men's C-1 1,000 metres canoe final.
Hall's time of three minutes 58.820 seconds placed him third overall in the semifinals.
Kayakers Brady Reardon of Burlington Ont., Ottawa's Angus Mortimer, Chris Pellini of Port Credit, Ont., and Rhys Hill of Ottawa finished third in the K-4 1,000 semifinal to advance.
Canada's other boats didn't move on.
Emilie Fournel of Dorval, Que., Karen Furneaux of Waverley, N.S., Gabriel Beauchesne-Sevigny of Trois-Rivieres, Que., and Ottawa's Kristin Gauthier were fourth in the K-4 500 kayak semifinal. Only the top three boats advanced.
And kayakers Steven Jorens of Aurora, Ont., and Ryan Cuthbert of Carleton Place, Ont., failed to move on in the K-2 1,000 after finishing fifth in the semifinal.
In other results Wednesday:
-Scott Erwood of Surrey, B.C., failed to move on in BMX quarter-finals after finishing eighth in his heat.
On the women's side, Samantha Cools of Airdrie, Alta., was 13th in seeding after recording her fastest time of 39.137 seconds in her second run.
-Vancouver's Matt Gentry was eliminated in qualifying in 74-kilogram freestyle wrestling by Greece's Emzarios Bentinidis.
Haislan Garcia of Vancouver was also ousted in qualifying. He lost to Uzbekistan's Soslan Tigiev in the 66-kg weight class.
-Canada's men's water polo team dropped a 13-11 decision to Italy. The Canadians will play one more match to determine whether they finish 11th or 12th.
"Our goal was to finish in the Top 8, and while I am disappointed we didn't reach it, it was a good experience," said team member Kevin Mitchell of Maple Ridge, B.C. "By the third game of the tournament, we knew that we could play against the best in the world."
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