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Here’s a look at how Canadian athletes fared on the international stage over the last few days.
Hockey: Canada suffered its first loss at the men’s world championship
After crushing its first five opponents by a combined score of 28-2, Canada fell 2-1 in a shootout against Finland yesterday in Sweden. Canadian stars Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon were both stopped by Finland goalie Juuse Saros in the tiebreaker.
At our publish time, Canada (16 points) was playing unbeaten Group A leader Sweden (18) in their preliminary-round finale. Finland finished with 16 points, so a regulation win would give the Canadians first place in the group, but they could end up as low as third with a regulation loss. Austria (10 points) secured fourth place and its first playoff berth in 31 years by defeating Latvia 6-1 this morning.
Three of the four quarterfinal entries from Group B have been decided. Surprising Switzerland (19 points), the United States (17) and the Czech Republic (17) will be joined by either Denmark or Germany (nine points each), who were playing for the last playoff spot at our publish time. The quarterfinals all take place on Thursday.
Golf: Taylor Pendrith earned his best finish ever at a major
The 33-year-old Canadian tied for fifth in the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, N.C., firing a 3-under 68 in the final round on Sunday to finish at 5 under. That was six shots behind world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who pulled it together after a shaky front nine to win by five over fellow Americans Bryson DeChambeau, Harris English and Davis Riley. It’s Scheffler’s third major title and his first outside of the Masters.
In his other seven majors, Pendrith had never finished higher than a tie for 16th and missed the cut four times. His T5 moved him up 11 spots in the men’s world rankings to No. 38. That’s the second-highest among Canadians, behind Corey Conners, who climbed two spots to No. 19 after finishing in a tie for 19th at the PGA Championship. No. 42 Nick Taylor, No. 48 Mackenzie Hughes and No. 98 Adam Hadwin all missed the cut.
The Canadian Open is two weeks away. It’ll be hosted by TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley in Caledon, Ont.
Track and field: Solid results for Canadian sprinters
Andre De Grasse finished second in the men’s 200m and Sade McCreath was third in the women’s 100m at the World Athletics Continental Tour’s Golden Grand Prix meet in Tokyo on Saturday night.
De Grasse clocked 20.29 seconds to finish 0.05 behind winner Robert Gregory of the United States. McCreath (11.46) was just ahead of reigning world champion and Paris Olympic silver medallist Sha’Carri Richardson of the U.S. (11.47) in a race won by Australia’s Bree Rizzo in 11.38. De Grasse’s relay teammate Jerome Blake did not advance past the heats in the men’s 100m.
Aaron Brown (another member of Canada’s Olympic-champion men’s 4x100m team) placed fourth in the men’s 200m at Friday’s Diamond League meet in Doha. Olympic gold medallist Letsile Tebogo of Botswana won it in a pedestrian 20.10 while Brown came in at 20.35.
Olympic women’s pole vault bronze medallist Alysha Newman finished eighth on Friday in Doha. Britain’s Molly Caudery won the event, while world champion Katie Moon of the United States tied for second.
Twenty-year-old Jamaican twins Tia and Tina Clayton took the top two spots in the women’s 100m in Doha, with Tia winning in a world-leading 10.92 seconds. Thirty-eight-year-old Jamaican great Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce was fourth in her first Diamond League appearance of what she says will be her final season. Here are all the results from Doha.
Other key Canadian results:
* Olympic canoe champion Katie Vincent won gold in the non-Olympic women’s C-1 500m at the World Cup opener in Hungary. Vincent placed fourth in the C-1 200m (the event she won at the Paris Olympics), missing the podium by 0.01 of a second. The team of Sophia Jensen, Sloan MacKenzie, Zoe Wojtyk and Jacy Grant took bronze in the women’s C-4 500m, another event that is not on the Olympic program.
* Canada took silver in its 3×3 basketball Women’s Series season debut in Amsterdam, losing 21-11 to the host Netherlands in Saturday’s final. The Canadian team was led by Katherine Plouffe, who topped the tournament in rebounds, and Paige Crozon, who ranked third in scoring. Plouffe, her twin sister Michelle Plouffe, Crozon and Kacie Bosch lost the Olympic bronze-medal game to the U.S. last year.
* Swimmer Ingrid Wilm won the women’s 100m backstroke and placed second in the 50m backstroke at the Mare Nostrum Tour opener in Monaco. Wilm was sixth in the 100 backstroke at last year’s Paris Olympics.
* Triathletes Tyler Mislawchuk and Charles Paquet finished sixth and 10th, respectively, in a men’s World Triathlon Championship Series race in Yokohama. Stefan Daniel took bronze in the Para men’s event.
* Road cyclist Derek Gee climbed from 29th overall in the Giro d’Italia to 12th through today’s 10th stage. Gee finished 22nd overall in his Giro debut in 2023 before placing ninth in his first Tour de France last year. At a Para Cycling Road World Cup event in Italy, Alexandre Hayward won the men’s C-3 time trial while Jessica Law took silver in the women’s C-5 road race and Maarten Duif grabbed a silver and a bronze in H-1 races.