A look at five things to know from Saturday at the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics

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This article was published 07/08/2021 (1500 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TOKYO – From Canada eclipsing its medal count from the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics to a chance to add to that total in sprint cycling, here are five things to know from Saturday at the Tokyo Games:

GOING OVERBOARD

A show of team spirit left Canadian sprint canoeists Laurence Vincent-Lapointe and Katie Vincent in the drink. The pair had just claimed a bronze medal in the first-ever women’s C-2 500-metre Olympic final when Vincent, sitting in the back of the canoe, gave Vincent-Lapointe a congratulatory pat on the shoulder. Vincent-Lapointe appeared to reach back to embrace her partner but lost her balance, tipping the boat and sending them both tumbling into the Sea Forest Waterway. “These Games, I waited long, long, long for them, and I’ve given everything I have, and I’m super proud that I was able to finish this on such a great note with Katie,” said Vincent-Lapointe, who also won silver in the women’s 200-metre solo race. “I understood in the last few years that working by oneself is good, but working with a team — and a good team — is even better.”

BETTER THAN RIO

With the bronze in the canoe, Canada earned its 23rd medal, eclipsing its total of 22 from five years ago at the Rio de Janeiro Games. It’s the richest medal haul for Canada at a non-boycotted Summer Games. The colour of the medals in Tokyo have also been impressive. Canada’s six gold is two more than it had in Rio, and only one off the seven it won at the Barcelona Games — a Canadian record for a non-boycotted Olympics. The nation’s six silver medals are double the amount it claimed in Rio.

SPRINTING INTO THE SEMIFINALS

Track cyclist Kelsey Mitchell of Sherwood Park, Alta., has a chance to add to Canada’s medal haul when she competes in the semifinals of the women’s sprint. Mitchell won an incredibly tight race to advance to the quarterfinals, beating New Zealand’s Ellesse Andrews by five-thousandths of a second. She then defeated teammate Lauriane Genest of Lévis, Que., in a pair of quarterfinal races to give Canada a medal chance on the final day of competition in Tokyo. Mitchell will face Germany’s Emma Hinze in Sunday’s semifinals.

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STILL GOT IT

Malindi Elmore said she had given up any aspirations of competing in an Olympics after retiring from track in 2012. She hadn’t competed at a Games since the 2004 Athens Olympics, failing to make the next two as a competitor in the 1,500 metres. Turns out, after reinventing herself as an Ironman triathlete and then a long-distance runner, Elmore still has what it takes to succeed on the Olympic stage. Seventeen years after her Athens appearance, the 41-year-old from Kelowna, B.C., beat the searing heat of Sapporo to finish ninth in the women’s marathon. “I had no idea that this was an event for me,” said Elmore, who ran her first marathon in 2019 as a “bucket list” item.

SO CLOSE

Canada came achingly close to adding one final medal on the track. In the penultimate track race of the Tokyo Olympics, the women’s 4×400 team raced to a fourth-place finish, just 0.6 seconds back of third-place Jamaica. The Canadians made the Jamaicans earn their medal, with Candice McLeod going flat out to catch Canadian anchor runner Sage Watson down the stretch. The United States won gold and Poland took silver.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 7, 2021.