MONTREAL – World number-ones Alison Levine and Iulian Ciobanu, both of Montreal, won a silver medal in the BC4 pairs on Sunday to conclude the Montreal stop on the boccia World Cup circuit.
In the final, the Paralympic Games bound Canadians lost to world number-three Hong Kong 5-0. Levine and Ciobanu went undefeated in the preliminary round with victories over the U.S., Portugal, and Japan, then defeated South Korea 7-1 in the semifinals.
“In the finals, it came down to the small details,” said Ciobanu. “It was always close and there was a lot of measuring for each point, however, it was anyone’s game. We could have won just like they did. They are all little details which we can always work on to be ready for Paris.”
Levine and Ciobanu are expected to compete at an event in Portugal this July before heading to the Paralympic Games.
The BC1/2 team of Lance Cryderman (Val Caron, ON), Kristyn Collins (St. John’s, NL) and Danik Allard (Bois-des-Filion, QC) were fourth.
Keely Shaw wins Canada’s second medal at Para cycling World Cup
Paralympian Keely Shaw of Midale, Sask. won the bronze medal in the women’s C4 road race on Sunday as Canada concluded the second stop on the Para cycling World Cup circuit with three medals.
Franziska Matile-Dorig of Switzerland took the gold clocking one hour, 36 minutes and 18 seconds in the 59 kilometre race in a photo finish with American Samantha Bosco. Shaw, fourth in the time trial Friday, was eight seconds back of the two leaders.
Other Canadian road race highlights were a second fourth this week for Shelley Gautier of Niagara Falls, Ont. in the women’s T1 (tricycle), fifth for Nathan Clement of West Vancouver in the men’s T1, and sixth places for both Charles Moreau of Victoriaville, Que. in the men’s H3 (handcycle) and Alexandre Hayward of Quispamsis, N.B. in the men’s C3.
In the time trials earlier in the week, Clement won the silver and Hayward the bronze.
Canada opens Para ice hockey worlds with convincing wins
Liam Hickey of St. John, N.L. collected a tournament leading 13 points in two games this weekend as Canada opened the World Para Ice Hockey Championships with convincing wins over Japan on Saturday and Italy on Sunday.
Hickey, who missed most of last season with a concussion, earned two goals and four assists in a 10-0 win over Italy after notching three goals and four assists in a 19-0 rout of Japan.
“Our team effort is there,’’ said Hickey, a three-time Paralympian. ‘’We have been really happy with our past two games and we want to take that momentum moving forward. We have done a really good job sticking together as a team and keeping things simple, which is something that we focused on coming into the tournament.’’
Dominic Cozzolino of Mississauga, Ont. joined the scoring party with four goals and four assists against Japan and a goal and three assists against the Italians.
Defenceman Tyrone Henry of Ottawa played his 100th international game in the win against Italy. He tallied six assists over the weekend.
A closer score is expected when Canada plays last year’s worlds bronze medallists Czechia on Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET. The Czechs opened with a 4-1 win over Italy then beat Japan 5-0.
Reigning world champions USA defeated Slovakia 10-0 and South Korea on the weekend. The Canadians and Americans are heavy favourites to the meet in the final on Sunday.
All 20 games from WinSport Arena are available via livestream for free at HockeyCanada.ca.
