Canada’s women’s basketball team held on to beat Brazil 71-67 on Sunday, and improve to 2-0 at the AmeriCup, the team’s first international tournament in more than a year. Nirra Fields scored 17 points to top world No. 4-ranked Canada, while Kayla Alexander had 11 points and seven rebounds. Clarissa Dos Santos had 25 points to lead 15th-ranked Brazil. The Canadians had opened the tournament with a 101-41 rout of the U.S. Virgin Islands, Canada’s first game together in 16 months. Sunday, the two undefeated teams played to a 21-21 tie to end the first quarter. Canada started to pull away and took a 45-37 lead into the halftime break, but Brazil rallied to tie it up late in the third and led 59-58 with one quarter left. Canada, which hadn’t played together since clinching an Olympic berth in February of 2020 in Belgium, plays El Salvador on Monday and Colombia on Tuesday. The Canadians are without WNBA players Natalie Achonwa, Kia Nurse and Bridget Carleton who will join the team in Tokyo.
Canada’s Mislawchuk races to World Triathlon Cup victory in Mexico
Canada’s Tyler Mislawchuk raced to victory at the World Triathlon Cup on Sunday, the final men’s race of the Olympic qualifying period. The 26-year-old from Oak Bluff, Man., who’d won the same race two years earlier, withstood the heat on a steamy morning to finish the sprint distance event in 53 minutes 9 seconds for his third World Cup victory. Mislawchuk’s victory two years earlier in Huatulco was part of a breakthrough season that saw him climb his first World Triathlon Series podium with a bronze in Montreal, then winning the Olympic test event in Tokyo before the international sports world shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Manoel Messias was second in 53:21, while fellow Brazilian Miguel Hidalgo crossed third in 53:22.
Canada’s Woods finishes fifth overall in Tour de Suisse
Canadian cyclist Michael Woods was runner-up in the final stage of the Tour de Suisse on Sunday, finishing first in the race’s mountain classification and fifth in the overall standings. Switzerland’s Gino Mader won the sprint to the finish line in the final 159.5-kilometre stage ahead of the 34-year-old from Ottawa. Ecuador’s Richard Carapaz won the eight-stage race, seen as a warmup for the Tour de France. Colombian Rigoberto Uran was second, ahead of Denmark’s Jakob Fuglsang, Germany’s Maximilian Schachmann and Woods. Hugo Houle of Sainte-Perpétue, Que., finished 30th overall. Guillaume Boivin of Montreal was 58th, James Piccoli of Montreal 63rd, Robert Britton of Regina 78th, Nickolas Zukowsky of Ste-Lucie-des-Laurentides, Que., 98th and Ottawa’s Matteo Dal Cin 122nd. Woods, Piccolo and Boivin were riding for the Israel Start-Up Nation while Zukowsky, Dal-Cin and Britton were competing for Rally Cycling. Houle rides for Astana Premier-Tech.
Canada defeats Haiti in first leg of second-round World Cup qualifier
A challenging trip to Haiti ended Saturday with a win and a valuable away goal for Canada in its quest to advance in CONCACAF World Cup qualifying. The 70th-ranked Canadian men put on a composed, professional performance in the most difficult of conditions, defeating a physical Haiti side 1-0 in steamy heat on a sticky artificial surface at an empty Stade Sylvio Cator. Canada and No. 83 Haiti meet again Tuesday at SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview, Ill., to decide who advances to the final round of qualifying in the region that covers North and Central America and the Caribbean.