Lima 2019: Canadian Parapan Am Team on Day 9 and looking ahead at Day 10

LIMA – Heading into the final day of the Lima 2019 Parapan Am Games, Canada has now captured 53 total medals. The Canadian Parapan Am Team added one gold, three silver, and four bronze medals on Saturday. 

MEDAL CHART:

TOP HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DAY 
The Canadian men’s wheelchair basketball team will be going home with the silver medal following a 76-43 defeat at the hands of the Americans in the gold-medal game. They fell behind from the start of the game and were never to climb out of the deficit. Despite the loss, Canada achieved its major goal of the Games, qualifying for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. 

“We are happy but not satisfied with tonight, so we have to work harder for next year. It’s like a mountain. We had a couple of goals for each year from Rio to Tokyo and we have been meeting our benchmarks, the marks that we wanted and we set for ourselves. So, we are on schedule and we are right where we want. And I think that just gives us a little more fire to get to the peak where there is a little less oxygen on the peak of the mountain.” 
– David Eng

After winning a silver medal at each of the last two Parapan Am Games, Marco Dispaltro finally captured his gold medal – winning the mixed individual BC4 tournament with a dominant 11-2 triumph in the gold-medal match versus Colombian Euclides Grisales. In the bronze-medal match, fellow Canadian Iulian Ciobanu dropped a close 5-3 decision. 

“It feels pretty wonderful. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. The last time I was atop the podium was in 2014. I’ve said in the past that I’m like the Gordie Howe of wheelchair sports but Gordie’s not set to retire just yet… I haven’t had this feeling since late 2014. When you have your share of success sometimes the hunger goes away, but I think the hunger’s back.”
– Marco Dispaltro

Following the conclusion of boccia individual play, pairs action began with Philippe Lord, Eric Bussière, and Marylou Martineau opening 1-1 in the BC3 tournament. The BC4 pairs team of Dispaltro, Ciobanu, and Alison Levine also posted one win and one loss.  

On the last day of Para swimming competition, Patrick Waters made his long-awaited Lima 2019 debut and made the most of his only race by earning a silver medal in the men’s SB9 100m breaststroke in a time of 1:14.77. Canada concludes the Games with 21 medals won in the pool. 

“It was unreal, it’s always been a dream of mine to represent Canada. I only had one chance this week but I’m glad I could get it done. Going into this, we knew how it would be so that’s what the preparation’s been about. Seeing my teammates get personal bests, set records, it’s amazing to ride that wave for a week. This is a lifetime of people supporting and believing in me.”
– Patrick Waters

Pascal Lapointe captured Canada’s first-ever Parapan Am Games medal in Para badminton, crushing crowd favorite Pablo Cueto of Peru 21-6, 21-4 in a mere 19 minutes to claim the bronze in men’s standing SL4 singles. The sport made its major Games debut here in Lima before joining the Paralympic program next year in Tokyo. 

‘’It’s super for me to win the first medal for Canada in Para badminton at a Parapan Ams. Of course it was just luck with the timing because we’ll win a few more medals. The bronze though is a bit bittersweet. Of course we wanted a medal but we prepared really hard to get higher than that. I kept the match today simple and I didn’t want to give him easy points and I probably played the best match of my career. I was relaxed and everything I did was working.’’
– Pascal Lapointe 

Before long, three more Canadians joined him with podium performances. In the men’s wheelchair doubles draw, Bernard Lapointe and Richard Peter were embroiled in a tough battle with a Chilean pair but prevailed 19-21, 21-15, 21-11 to also win a bronze medal. In the women’s standing singles, Olivia Meier finished in second place following the completion of round-robin play. She wrapped up her matches on Friday but had to wait a day to find out the colour of her medal – silver, thanks to a 3-1 record. Teenagers Wyatt Lightfoot in short stature singles and William Roussy in standing SL3 singles both lost in their respective bronze-medal games. 

The Canadian men’s and women’s teams in goalball matched their performances from the 2015 Parapan Am Games, both winning a bronze medal. The women secured a strong 10-0 victory over Mexico, while the men were tested a bit more by Venezuela before coming out on top 13-11. 

“We’re happy we pulled out a win and got the bronze medal. It’s always awesome to bring a medal back to Canada, and represent your country, and it’s awesome that both the guys and girls were able to medal. It means more publicity for goalball.”
– Blair Nesbitt

“That game was amazing, we came out strong after yesterday’s loss. Everyone wanted to win, we continued with strong defense and followed the game plan. We were able to get our bench players in, which is great international experience for them too.” 
– Amy Burk

For the complete Canadian Parapan Am Team results on August 31, please CLICK HERE.

LOOKING AHEAD AT DAY 10 ACTION
Competition at the Parapan Am Games will officially wrap up in afternoon, with just three sports remaining: 

•    The Para cycling road races will take over the Lima coast on Sunday morning starting at 8 a.m. The Canadian team has won 10 medals at the Games so far and will look to add to its total in the final event. Leading off will be tandems Carla Shibley and pilot Meghan Lemiski (three medals), Annie Bouchard and pilot Evelyne Gagnon (two medals), and Lowell Taylor and pilot Andrew Davidson (two medals). Also competing will be Marie-Claude Molnar (one medal), Matthew Kinnie (one medal), Michael Shetler (one medal), Patrick Desnoyers, and Rico Morneau. 

•    In Para badminton action, Yuka Chokyu will compete in the women’s wheelchair singles gold-medal match. She will challenge Peruvian Pilar Jauregui. In mixed doubles, Pascal Lapointe and Olivia Meier are assured a medal, but the colour is still to be determined as it is a round-robin tournament. They currently boast a 3-0 record, which is at the top of the group, and so a victory in their final match on Sunday would give them the gold medal. Lapointe and Meier are the first match on court, at 8 a.m. local time / 9 a.m. ET. 

•    Canada’s boccia athletes remain in contention for medals in pairs competition, which is a round-robin tournament. Both the BC3 and BC4 pairs teams are 1-1 and will play one final match after which the final standings will be determined. Both games will take place at 9 a.m. local time. 

HOW TO WATCH
Five sports are available to live stream via the CPC Facebook page, CBC Gem streaming service, cbcsports.ca, the CBC Sports app for iOS and Android devices, as well as the Radio-Canada Sports app and radio-canada.ca/sports.

Live Stream Schedule for Saturday September 1:
9 a.m. ET – Para Badminton Day 4 competition