DUBAI – Canada’s women’s wheelchair basketball team repeated its showing from both the last worlds in 2018 and the 2020 Paralympics with a fifth-place finish at the IWBF World Championships on Monday.
The men’s side continued its international improvement finishing sixth. They were 12th in 2018 and eighth at the postponed Games in 2021. The gold and bronze medal games for both the men and women are on Tuesday.
In the women’s fifth-place game, Cindy Ouellet scored four unanswered points in the last 50 seconds to give Canada at 64-62 victory over Australia. With the Aussies up 62-60 with 57 seconds left, Ouellet sunk a free throw, scored a field goal to put Canada ahead, and added another free throw with 22 seconds remaining as Canada held on the rest of the way.
Ouellet topped all scorers with 35 points and Kady Dandeneau added 10. Both players also added 10 rebounds. Canada never led after each of the first three quarters trailing 18-16 after one and the score tied 32-32 at the half and 46-46 after three.
In Tuesday’s medal matches, Netherlands faces China for gold and the U.S. meets Germany for bronze.
The Canadian men lost their fifth-place match to Italy 67-56. Nik Goncin scored 15 points, Colin Higgins 10, and Pat Anderson nine. Canada won the fourth quarter 15-14 but it wasn’t enough to overcome the deficit from the first three.
In the medal matches Tuesday, it’s U.S. – UK for gold and Netherlands – Iran for bronze.
Both teams will now prepare for the 2023 Parapan American Games this November in Santiago, Chile. Only eight countries will compete at Paris 2024, down from 12 in 2020. The winners in Santiago qualify for the Paralympics.
Mechanical issue on bike sinks Frenette’s medal hopes
Kamylle Frenette was in the lead after the swimming portion in the women’s PS5 at the Para triathlon Cup in Besançon, France on Saturday but a mechanical issue with her bike put her out of medal contention and she was seventh.
Still Frenette did the last four kilometres of the bike portion on her bare feet while carrying her broken bike and finished the race. She suffered blisters and slight burns on both feet.
“Triathlon builds character,’’ said Frenette, 26, a member of the 2020 Paralympic team. ‘’As my dad says, unless you break both legs you have no reason not to finish a triathlon. That’s what I thought of today.’’
Frenette and other Canadians are scheduled to compete at the World Triathlon Championship Series in Montreal on July 8.
Two Canadians reach quarterfinals at YONEX Canada Para Badminton International
Canada’s first Paralympian in Para badminton Olivia Meier of Winnipeg and veteran Yuka Chokyu of Vancouver each advanced to the quarterfinals this past weekend at the YONEX Canada Para Badminton International in Ottawa.
Para badminton made its Games debut at Tokyo 2020 and Meier, 24, was Canada’s sole entry for the event. This past week she went 1-1 in preliminary round play in the women’s singles SL4 and lost the quarterfinal to Haruka Fujino of Japan. Fujino won the tournament.
Chokyu was a three-time Paralympian in wheelchair tennis and has been one Canada’s top Para badminton players in the women’s wheelchair class. She was 2-2 in the preliminary round and lost to Henriett Koosz of Austria in the quarterfinal.
This was the second edition of the event, and it was part of the Badminton World Federation’s (BWF) Para Badminton World Circuit 2023, a Paris 2024 Paralympic qualifying event, as well as the final qualifying event in the Race to Santiago – 2023 Parapan Am Games.
As one of only four top Level 1 events in the calendar, the Canada Para Badminton International featured many of the best Para badminton athletes from across the world.
With files from Wheelchair Basketball Canada and Acadie Nouvelle
