Locals help win university games medals
Ottawa-area sprinters Brown, Robertson members of teams
Ottawa-area athletes helped Canada collect a pair of silver medals in the 4x400-metre relays of the World Universiade track and field competition at Kazan, Russia, on Friday.
Alicia Brown of Ottawa ran the anchor leg behind Noelle Montcalm of Windsor, Sarah Wells of Unionville, Ont., and Helen Crofts of West Vancouver as the Canadians placed second in the women’s 4x400 in a time of three minutes 32.93 seconds. Host Russia won in 3:26.61, while South Africa was third in 3:36.05.
Michael Robertson of Williamstown ran the third leg of the men’s 4x400, in which he, Benjamin Ayesu-Attah of Coquitlam, B.C., Brendon Rodney of Toronto and Daniel Harper of Brampton, Ont., crossed the finish line in 3:05.26. Russia was again first, this time in 3:03.70, and South Africa was third in 3:06.19.
“We watched the heats (Thursday), and we knew that Ben was going to give us a great opportunity and position to go after them,” Robertson said in a news release. “Their guy out of the first leg was world-class. We gave ourselves a chance, but we banged into them there on that exchange and that made the gap a little too much.”
For Robertson and Rodney, the medal came after bitter disappointment in the 4x100 metre event earlier on Friday. A disastrous final exchange disqualified the foursome, which also included Oluwasegun Makinde of Ottawa and Sam Effah of Calgary.
Canada had the fastest time through the heats and looked to be in good position to challenge for gold. Effah, the anchor, took off early and Rodney was unable to catch him inside the zone.
The team posted a disqualified time of 39.39.
Canada completed the track and field portion of the Universiade with five medals, including a gold in the women’s 200 metres by Kimberly Hyacinthe of Terrebonne, Que.
Meanwhile, the Canadian men’s basketball team defeated the United States 9485 on Friday to advance to the quarter-finals.
Canada, which hasn’t won Universiade gold since it played at home in Edmonton in 1983, was a perfect 5-0 and finished first in its preliminary-round pool. It will face Brazil in a quarter-final on Sunday.
Brothers Thomas and Philip Scrubb, members of the Carleton Ravens national championship squad, had eight and five points, respectively, for the Canadians on Friday.
Overall so far, Canadian athletes have so far collected 10 medals: one goal, five silver and four bronze. The Universiade ends July 17.