AGOSTA ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT FROM HOCKEY
Meghan Agosta, who won three gold medals representing Canada at the Olympics, announced Friday she is retiring from hockey.
Agosta, 37, played for more than a decade and a half, also winning two International Ice Hockey Federation world championship gold medals and one Olympic silver. She was voted the most valuable player on home ice at the 2010 Vancouver Games.
Agosta is now a full-time constable with the Vancouver Police Department, after taking a break from hockey several years ago to pursue a career in law enforcement. She balanced both from 2015 through the 2018 Olympics.
Veteran Canadian international Junior Hoilett has joined Scotland’s Aberdeen until the end of the season. The 33-year-old soccer player from Brampton, Ont., has been without a club since his contract with the Vancouver Whitecaps expired at the end of the year.
Hoilett had stints with Reading, Cardiff City, Queens Park Rangers and Blackburn Rovers in Britain and St. Pauli FC in Germany.
Hoilett has 62 caps for Canada and was part of its 2022 World Cup squad.
Canadian judoka Christa Deguchi won gold in the under-57 kilogram category Friday at a judo Grand Slam event at Baku, Azerbaijan. Deguchi won the gold medal in a walkover when her opponent, Nora Gjakova of Kosovo, had to withdraw due to an injury.
The judoka from Lethbridge, Alta., advanced to the final with a semifinal win over Eteri Liparteliani of Georgia. She started with quick wins against Altantsetseg Batsukh of the United Arab Emirates and Julia Kowalczyk of Poland, but needed overtime to edge out Daria Bilodid of Ukraine in the quarterfinals.
Deguchi has won three golds and four silvers in the last seven events.
The Canadian women’s water polo team qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics after South Africa forfeited its allocated spot. Water Polo Canada made the announcement Friday after Canada was seemingly denied qualification for the Games following an 18-12 loss to Italy at the world aquatics championships.
The loss relegated Canada to eighth in the competition while Italy picked up the last of two qualification spots at the tournament.
Details of what led South Africa to forfeit its spot were not immediately available.
Fresh from overtaking the absent Mikaela Shiffrin in the women’s World Cup overall standings, Lara Gutbehrami won a shortened downhill on Friday to close in on the injured Sofia Goggia in the standings.
Gut-behrami, who is on a four-race winning streak, was 0.21 seconds faster than Swiss teammate Jasmine Flury on the Mont Lachaux course at Crans-montana, Switzerland for her first downhill victory in more than two years.