Canadians punch ticket to Tokyo
Natalie Achonwa and Miranda Ayim hugged and smiled and fell to the court of the Ostend Dome in Belgium, joyful and proud and bound for the Tokyo Olympics.
The two veterans, along with Kim Gaucher and coach Lisa Thomaidis, can now call themselves three-time Olympians after Canada routed Sweden 80-50 on Saturday to earn a berth in Tokyo this summer.
It will mark the third straight time the women’s basketball team has qualified for the Games and they will be looking to take one or two steps beyond the quarterfinals they made in both London 2012 and Rio 2016. But first, a well-deserved celebration. “To qualify with a 30-point victory is pretty special. It speaks to how far this team has come,” Thomaidis said after the game. “Having some expectations of being there tempers some of the excitement right now … There are high expectations on this team, on this group, so it does temper it, but we’re a very excited group right now.”
There was a small measure of professionalism after the win, because they will now go to Tokyo as legitimate medal threats, but the celebration was soon on — full bore.
“It hasn’t really set in yet, but listening to (Thomaidis) talk about it being my, Kim and Miranda’s third Olympics kind
of made me emotional, knowing that the injuries, the fight — not only just me, but our entire team has been through to get to this point,” Achonwa said.
“I don’t think we take it lightly. It’s an honour to be able to represent Canada every time we put a jersey on, but to be able to do that at an Olympic Games, and to qualify for another Olympic Games … (I) definitely do not take it lightly.”
After a so-so first half in which they committed a dozen turnovers and led by only six at the break, the Canadians dominated the final 20 minutes. They outscored Sweden 43-19 over the final two quarters, had only three turnovers and won going away.
“It was a slow first half … they did a good job of slowing us down, but this team is smart and we made some adjustments,” said Thomaidis.
Achonwa was dominant inside and the team’s leading scorer with16 points, with Bridget Carleton adding12 and Shaina Pellington 11 to a well-balanced offence.
“I think the energy we came out with in the second half really set us apart,” Achonwa said. “I think we always are focused. I remember Miranda coming in the huddle saying we need to win these first three minutes, and we did that by getting stops and staying aggressive on offence.”
Six players — Achonwa, Ayim, Gaucher, Miah-Marie Langlois, Kia Nurse and Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe — will compete in their second straight Olympics if, as expected, the qualification roster stays basically intact through the Games.
“I can pull out old articles where I was like ‘I’m going to play in four Olympics,’ so my confidence as a youngster was very high,” Gaucher said in an interview this past week, about her chance to become a threetime Olympian. “Turns out qualifying was very hard in those days, but yeah, I can see it. (But) it’s still incredible to see the growth.”
Canada rolled through the qualification process this time around. They went unbeaten in a preliminary qualification tournament in Edmonton in August, held off a tough Belgian team in a difficult atmosphere on Thursday, and will be looking for a third straight win Sunday against Japan.
“I think our mentality is the same. We came in wanting to win every game in this tournament, and we will keep that mentality going forward,” Achonwa said. “It’s a great prep (for the Olympics), and Japan’s looking at it the same way, so I think it’s going to be a competitive game.”