Coming up! Canadian women ready to defend Dutch Tournament sitting volleyball crown

OTTAWA – Canada’s women’s sitting volleyball team, which won an historic bronze medal last year at the Paralympic Games, is back in action at the 10^th Dutch Tournament which runs this Friday to Sunday in Assen.

It’s the team’s second event this season. In Denver this past May, they won the bronze medal to qualify for the 2026 World Championships.

The Canadian men’s sitting volleyball team, which also qualified for the 2026 worlds at the same event, is also in Assen. All matches this week will be streamed live on the tournament’s YouTube page.

In the women’s event, Canada is the defending champion. Last year, they defeated Brazil in the final which gave the Canadians a huge lift heading into the Paris Games.

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In Paris, the Canadian women would beat Brazil again in the bronze medal match for Canada’s first ever Paralympic Games medal in the sport.

In Assen, there are five returnees from the medal winning squad with 11-year head coach Nicole Ban at the helm:

Allison Lang (Edmonton)

Heidi Peters (Neerlandia, Alta.)

Jennifer McCreesh (Smithers, B.C.)

Jolan Wong (Pembroke, Ont.)

Katelyn Wright (Edmonton)

Also on the team are Amber Brown of Wandering River, Alta., Anna Dunn of Halifax, Chelsea Coates of Calgary, Julia Chisholm, Keira Neal and Natasha Quillan.

There are five countries in the women’s tournament: the Netherlands, Italy, France and Paralympic Games champions USA.

Canada opens the preliminary round against France and the Netherlands on Friday, then face Italy and the USA on Saturday. The playoffs are on Sunday.

On the men’s side Canada faces Estonia and Poland on Friday and Italy on Saturday. USA Japan, Turkey and the Netherlands are in the other pool. The men’s playoff round is on Saturday and Sunday.

The Canadian men’s team led by head coach Reid Brodie is comprised of Nicholas Aldrich, Mikael Bartholdy, Jason Beaman, Christopher Bird, Jesse Buckingham, Connor Compton, Bryce Foster, Andrew Tucker, Kyle Hall, Josh Daley, Johnathan LaPorte and Riley Brinnen.

Full schedule is here: https://www.tournify.nl/live/dt2025/schedule

Matches will be streamed live on the tournament Facebook page.

Two Canadian Para athletes at the Prefontaine Classic

Marissa Papaconstantinou of Toronto and Nandina Sharma of Brampton, Ont., are Canada’s two entries in the Para events at the 50^th Prefontaine Classic track and field competition on Saturday in Eugene, Oregon.

Blade runner Papaconstantinou, 25, is already a three-time Paralympian and is scheduled to race in the women’s multi-class 100-metre in Eugene. At the Paris Games, Constantinou was fourth in the 200m and she was a bronze medallist at Tokyo 2020 in the 100m.