Tokyo 2020 Day 3 Preview: Action heats up for Canada with 10 sports on the schedule

TOKYO – With four medals now next to the Canadian flag after two days of competition, the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games is heating up as six sports are added to the docket for the Canadian team on Friday August 27. Canada will make its Tokyo debut on Friday in Para athletics, Para judo, Para rowing, sitting volleyball, Para archery, and Para equestrian while competition continues in Para swimming, Para cycling, wheelchair basketball, and wheelchair rugby. 

•    Five Canadian Para swimmers will be in the pool, with Danielle Dorris (Moncton, NB) and Camille Bérubé (Gatineau, QC) making their first Tokyo appearances both in the women’s 200m individual medley SM7 heats starting at 10:13 a.m. JST / 9:13 p.m. ET (Thursday). This is the second Games for Dorris, who was Canada’s youngest athlete in Rio five years ago at age 13, while Bérubé is at her third Games. 

Nicholas Bennett (Parksville, BC) is the youngest member of the Canadian Paralympic Team in Tokyo at age 17, and he will start the day off for Canada in the men’s 200m freestyle S14 heats at 9:07 a.m. JST / 8:07 p.m. ET (Thursday). Shortly following Bennett will be Angela Marina (Cambridge, ON) in the women’s 200m freestyle S14 and Matthew Cabraja (Brampton, ON) in the men’s 50m freestyle S11. Swimming finals will start at 5 p.m. JST / 4 a.m. ET.   

•    Para cyclist Kate O’Brien (Calgary, AB) is set to make her Paralympic debut in the women’s C4-5 500m time trial. A Rio 2016 Olympian, O’Brien is the current world record holder in the C4 category with a time of 35.223, which she secured in January 2020 at the track world championships in Milton, ON at what was her first-ever Para cycling competition. Her event will commence in Tokyo at 2:29 p.m. JST / 1:29 a.m. ET. Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Tristen Chernove (Cranbrook, BC) will also be back on his bike at the velodrome, this time racing in the men’s C1-3 1000m time trial, which starts at 1:20 p.m. JST / 12:20 a.m. ET.

•    Three Canadians are set to take to the track and field at Olympic Stadium as Para athletics competition officially begins in Tokyo. Wheelchair racing superstar Brent Lakatos (Dorval, QC), who has entered six events in Tokyo ranging from the 100m to the marathon, will start with the men’s T54 5000m heats at 8:54 p.m. JST / 7:54 a.m. ET. 

In the throwing events, Charlotte Bolton (Tillsonburg, ON) and Sarah Mickey (Redcliff, AB) will be making their Paralympic debuts. Eighteen-year-old Bolton’s F41 shot put competition commences at 10:05 a.m. JST / 9:05 p.m. ET (Thursday) and Mickey will contest the F55 discus at 10:19 a.m. JST / 9:19 p.m. ET (Thursday). Bolton will officially become the first athlete discovered at a Paralympian Search event, hosted by the Canadian Paralympic Committee, to compete at a Paralympic Games. She attended the Toronto 2017 edition. 

•    Priscilla Gagné (Sarnia, ON), Canada’s Opening Ceremony flag bearer, will hit the mat for her competition in Para judo. She has a bye into the quarterfinals and will take on Alesia Stepaniuk of RPC in her first bout in the women’s 52kg category. Para judo starts at 10:30 a.m. JST / 9:30 p.m. ET (Thursday) and will run throughout the day with medal rounds commencing at 4 p.m. JST / 3 a.m. ET.

•    Canada’s mixed double sculls and mixed coxed four boats will hit the Sea Forest Waterway in Tokyo as Para rowing takes its turn on the schedule. In the PR2Mix2x event, the duo of Jessye Brockway (Mill Bay, BC) and Jeremy Hall (St. Paul, AB) will race in their first-ever Paralympic heat at 10:50 a.m. JST / 9:50 p.m. ET (Thursday). The Canadian crew of Kyle Fredrickson (Duncan, BC), Bayleigh Hooper (Chatsworth, ON), Victoria Nolan (Toronto, ON), Andrew Todd (Dartmouth, NS) and coxswain Laura Court (St. Catharines, ON) are then in heat one of the PR3Mix4+ set for 11:30 a.m. JST / 10:30 p.m. ET (Thursday). Nolan and Todd are the two returning members of the boat that won a bronze medal in this event at Rio 2016.  

•    Both of Canada’s wheelchair basketball teams will be in action. The women’s squad will be looking to up 2-0 in group play following a big opening victory on the first day of the Games, and are taking on host nation Japan at 9 a.m. JST / 8 p.m. ET (Thursday). The men will hit the court versus Turkey at 11:15 a.m. JST / 10:15 p.m. ET (Thursday) with a 0-1 record and will be hoping to pick up their first win of the tournament.   

•    Canada’s women’s sitting volleyball team will start its Tokyo 2020 campaign with a round-robin game against Brazil, starting at 6:30 p.m. JST / 5:30 a.m. ET. Canada, currently ranked fifth in the world, will be making its second straight Paralympic appearance in women’s sitting volleyball after qualifying for the first time at Rio 2016, where the squad finished seventh.

•    In wheelchair rugby, Canada will take the court for its final preliminary match, at 8 p.m. JST / 7 a.m. ET versus New Zealand. With a 0-2 record, Canada will not advance to the semifinals but will hope to head into the classification matches on a winning note.

•    In Para equestrian, all of Canada’s four riders and their horses will be competing in the dressage individual test. First up are Winona Hartvikson (Langley, BC) and Onyx as well as Jody Schloss (Toronto) and Lieutenant Lobin in the Grade I category, beginning at 4 p.m. JST / 3 a.m. ET. They will be followed by teammates Roberta Sheffield (Lincolnshire, England) and Fairuza plus Lauren Barwick (Aldergrove, BC) and Sandrino in the Grade III event at 7:14 p.m. JST / 6:14 a.m. ET. Hartvikson is making her Paralympic debut at age 62. Barwick is a two-time Paralympic medallist from Beijing 2008. 

•    Para archer Karen Van Nest (Wiarton, ON) will officially make her sixth Paralympic Games appearance as she sets her target on the women’s individual compound open, which starts at 9 a.m. JST / 8 p.m. ET (Thursday). 

COMPLETE SCHEDULE 
CLICK HERE for the complete Canadian Paralympic Team schedule on August 27. 

HOW TO WATCH
Livestream and on-demand broadcasts can be found on Paralympic.ca/Tokyo-2020/live-stream-video-demand, cbc.ca/tokyo2020 and Radio-Canada.ca/jeux-paralympiques, the CBC Sports app for iOS and Android devices, the free CBC Gem streaming service, and the Radio-Canada Sports app. 

August 27 Canadian TV Broadcasts: 
Sportsnet One (CBC Late Night Replay) – 7 a.m. ET 
CBC Daytime – 3 p.m. local
CBC Primetime – 7 p.m. local
CBC Late Night – 12:30 a.m. local (August 28)
Radio-Canada Afternoon – 1 p.m. ET 
Radio-Canada Late Night – 11:05 p.m. ET 

Click here for the complete broadcast schedule.