Canada vies for world championships berth at wheelchair rugby Americas Championship

Canada’s new head coach Trevor Hirschfield will undergo his first major test at the Americas Championships wheelchair rugby tournament, running July 11-15 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

All games will be live streamed on the WWR YouTube channel.

The tournament is a qualification opportunity for the 2026 World Wheelchair Rugby Championships, also in Sao Paulo. The top two teams, not counting Brazil, get a worlds ticket for next August.

“Team Canada is looking forward to building on our development and further our international experience at the zonal qualifier in Brazil” said Hirschfield, 41. “This tournament will provide strong competition as well as mean something – teams are playing to qualify for world championships, results matter.’’

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It is also the first big tournament for Canada without its scoring sensation, four-time Paralympian Zak Madell, who retired two weeks ago after a 13-year national team career.

Besides Madell, there was another key post-Paralympic Games retirement on Team Canada. It was Hirschfield himself. He was regarded as one of the top defensive players in the world and competed at five Paralympic Games, earning medals in 2008 and 2012. He was Canada’s co-captain alongside Patrice Dagenais.

Canada’s eight-member team in Sao Paulo still boasts six members of the 2024 Paralympic team that placed sixth in Paris. Canada and the U.S. were the two Americas teams at the Games. The U.S. took silver.

The six Paris Paralympians in Sao Paulo are:  Rio Kanda Kovac and Eric Rodrigues, both of Toronto, Matt Debly of Windsor, Ont., Cody Caldwell of Peterborough, Ont., Tony Létourneau of Montreal and Byron Green of Victoria.

Also on the squad is six-time Paralympian Patrice Simard of Quebec City. Yan Racicot of Montreal is the eighth player.

‘’We have a great team with lots of potential, mixed with veteran leadership,’’ said Hirschfield. ‘’It will be exciting to see how the team grows throughout this tournament.’’

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Canada opens the tournament on Friday vs. Chile at 9 a.m. (all times ET), then face Colombia on Saturday at 2 p.m. and Paraguay on Sunday at 2 p.m. The top-two teams in each pool advance to the semis on Monday with the medal matches on Tuesday.

The other pool is comprised of USA, Argentina, Peru and Brazil.

Canada’s women’s goalball team to compete at inaugural Goalball UK International Trophy

Four Canadian Paralympians are in action at the inaugural Goalball UK International Trophy women’s tournament set for this Friday to Sunday (July 11-13) in Guildford, England.

For Canada, the competition is a tune-up for the Americas Goalball Championships set for July 26 to August 6 in Sao Paulo.

The Canadian team members are five-time Paralympian Amy Burk of Ottawa, three-time Paralympian Meghan Mahon of Calgary, and two-time Paralympians Emma Reinke of St. Thomas, Ont. and Maryam Salehizadeh of Vancouver.

The newcomers are 17-year-old Cassandra Ruttle of Calgary and Geneviève Hart-Baron of Ottawa.

There are five countries in the tournament: Canada, France, Brazil, Great Britain and Spain.

In the preliminary round, Canada faces Spain and Brazil on Friday at 8:15 a.m. and 1 p.m. (all times ET) then on Saturday it’s Great Britain at 9:25 a.m. and France at 1 p.m. The medal matches are on Sunday.

Games will be streamed live on Goalball UK

Last month Canada won the bronze medal at the Malmo Lady Intercup in Sweden. They beat the U.S. 5-2 in the third-place match.

World champion Stefan Daniel in action at the World Triathlon Para Cup in Magog, Que.

Six-time world champion Stefan Daniel of Calgary is one of four Canadians on the start list for the World Triathlon Para Cup set for Saturday (July 12), in Magog, Que.

This past May, Daniel opened his 2025 season with the bronze medal at the World Triathlon Para Series stop in Yokohama, Japan. He was only five seconds from first place earned by Germany’s Martin Schulz.

In Magog, the two-time Paralympic Games medallist opponents include Paralympic Games champion Chris Hammer of the U.S., world number-four David Bryant of Australia and Ruiter Antonio Goncalves Silva of Brazil, fresh from winning the Americas Championships.

With an international event on home soil, some of the top Canadian prospects will also be in action. They are Nathan Sparks of Ottawa in men’s wheelchair, Olivier Desloges of Drummondville, Que., in men’s visually impaired and Casey Kidson of Kingston, Ont., in women’s PTS4·

The following Friday, July 18, the next stop in the World Triathlon Para Series is set for Montreal.

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