Weekend para sport round-up: World records in Berlin, silver for Daniel, wheelchair basketball teams tuning up

World record for Canada’s Nate Riech at Berlin Grand Prix

BERLIN – Nate Riech celebrated Canada Day weekend in grand style at the Berlin Grand Prix Para athletics competition with world record performances in the T38 800-m and 1500-m. 

Riech, who currently resides in Chandler, Arizona, clocked one minute and 57.78 seconds in the 800-m eclipsing the previous world mark of 1:58.87 set by South African Malcolm Pringe in 2004. In the 1500, Riech finished in 3:57.92 smashing the 4:05.11 set by Deon Kenzie of Australia last year.

The T38 classification is for athletes with coordination impairments.

His mother is former Canadian pole vault champion Arden Tucker and his father Todd competed at the 1996 Olympics in the javelin. His grandfather is former NHLer Jim Harrison.

Daniel opens international triathlon season with silver medal

ISEO, Italy – Canada’s Stefan Daniel won the silver medal at an ITU World Series event, his first international competition since winning the 2017 World Championships. Britain’s George Peasgood (59 minutes and 24 seconds) took the gold in the men’s PTS5 passing the 21-year-old Calgarian in the last few metres of the run. 

Daniel actually had the best run of the day as he overcame almost three minutes that Peasgood had gained with the swim and bike, to finish in second place only 17 seconds behind the winner. 

‘’Rough go yesterday at Iseo World Para Series,” tweeted Daniel.  ‘’Congrats to (Peasgood), I have some work to do! Time to recover and get ready for World Duathlon Championships on Friday in Denmark!’’

Wheelchair basketball: Canadian women split, men lose opener at worlds tune-up

SHEFFIELD, England – The Canadian women’s wheelchair basketball team defeated Japan 59-52 and lost to the Netherlands 65-56 to open the Continental Clash, a tune-up tournament for the upcoming world championships. 

Against Japan, Arinn Young led Canada with 27 points and 10 rebounds and Cindy Ouellet added 24 points.

“The Continental Clash is a good opportunity to gauge where we are leading up to the World Championships,” said Team Canada veteran Melanie Hawtin. “This tournament is about finding things in each game to build off of and just get better and better each game.”

There is also a men’s tournament and Canada lost its opener 58-35 to the Netherlands.

Patrick Anderson tallied a double-double for Canada with 23 points and 13 rebounds, while Ben Moronchuk and team captain Bo Hedges each added six points.

The tournament ends July 6. Full schedule and results can be found here.