Para sport notebook: Canada opens goalball worlds with split results

HANGZHOU, China – Canada’s women’s goalball team defeated Ukraine 3-2 on Wednesday to open the 2026 World Goalball Championships which also serves as the first qualifier for the 2028 Paralympic Games.

The top two teams in both the men’s and women’s competitions earn berths in the 2028 Paralympic Games.

The women continue preliminary round action on Thursday against Poland.  The Canadian roster includes Paralympians Amy Burk of Ottawa, Meghan Mahon of Calgary and Emma Reinke of St. Thomas, Ont., along with newcomers Cassandra Ruttle of Calgary, Elena Hung of Toronto and Gen Hart of Ottawa.

On the men’s side Canada lost 13-3 to Turkey in its opening game. The next opponent for the Canadian men is Ukraine on Thursday. 

‘’While the result wasn’t what we were looking for, this tournament is a marathon, not a sprint,’’ the team wrote on its Facebook page.  ‘’The team will take the lessons from today, regroup, and get ready for the next challenge.’’

The men’s team members are Paralympian Blair Nesbitt of Edmonton as well as  Raki Karim, Nick Gentleman, Harry Nickerson, Mason Smith and Peter Parsons.

Matches can be viewed live HERE

Levine, Ciobanu encouraged by progress at boccia World Cup

Back in Montreal, Canadian boccia players Alison Levine and Iulian Ciobanu said they showed encouraging progress in the BC4 doubles event at the World Cup in Astana, Kazakhstan this past weekend.

The Canadian Paralympians opened with victories over Ukraine and Kazakhstan before narrowly losing to China 6-5 in an extra end.

A month earlier, following the Montreal World Cup, Levine had said there was still a lot of work to do.

“We worked together for a month as if it were a mini emergency intervention,’’ she told Sportcom.  ‘’A tremendous amount of work was done in a very short time.

“Our coach, César Nicolaï said he was very satisfied and had no concerns about the upcoming world championships, that we had done what we needed to do. That’s a big relief.’’

In women’s BC4 singles, Levine reached the quarterfinals after defeating Egypt’s Hanaa Elfar and Germany’s Anita Raguwaran. Her run ended with a loss to Kazakhstan’s Elmira Musraliyeva.

‘’I’m happy with my performance,’’  she said.  “The improvement over the last month has been incredible. We definitely made the right adjustments to my game.”

Ciobanu also advanced to the quarterfinals of the men’s BC4 competition before being eliminated.

The pair will skip the next World Cup event in Portugal and focus on the world championships in South Korea at the end of August.