Valkyries moving on to face Rage

The Manitoba Fearless tried to spoil the Saskatoon Valkyries party, and nearly did. In the end, though, the Valkyries hung on for a 16-13 victory in Western Women’s Canadian Football League quarter-final play on Sunday at SMF Field.

Trailing 16-6, Fearless running back Hallie Eggie punched in her second touchdown to move the Fearless to within three points in the fourth quarter. On the final play of the game, the Fearless lined up for a 39-yard field goal, but a bad snap prevented the potential game-tying kick.

Sarah Wright scampered for a 29yard touchdown for the Valkyries and hauled in a two-yard scoring pass. The Valkyries added a safety.

They travel to Calgary next weekend to face the Rage in semifinal action.

LOCAL SWIMMER BREAKS WORLD RECORD

Shelby Newkirk of Saskatoon broke the world record in the S7 women’s 50-metre backstroke on Friday in Berlin at the sixth and final stop on the Para-swimming World Series circuit.

Newkirk won the silver medal in the multi-class race at 38.00 seconds. That eclipsed the previous S7 world mark of 38.32 set by China’s Keting Li at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.

Hannah Russell of Britain won the race in 31.61, setting a world record in the S12 category.

CANADA STARTS FAST

AT 3X3 WORLDS

Canada kicked off the FIBA 3x3 World Cup basketball tournament Saturday with a pair of victories over Mongolia and Russia in Bocaue, Philippines.

Steve Sir, Jermaine Bucknor, Michael Lieffers and Michael Linklater — known as Team Saskatoon before they became Team Canada — topped Mongolia 21-15 to begin the day, then followed it up with a 20-17 victory over No. 3 Russia. Bucknor replaced Nolan Brudehl, who is injured.

The Canadians face host Philippines and No. 6 Brazil on Monday.