Of the four medals won by Island athletes at the 2012 London Summer Olympics, the silvers by swimmer Ryan Cochrane and the Elk Lake-based Canadian men鈥檚 rowing eight were expected. The bronzes in track cycling by Gillian Carleton, and 10K open-water swimming by Richard Weinberger, could be classified as surprises at the time.
You only get one breakout moment. Weinberger will no longer sneak up on anybody and will enter the 2016 Rio Olympics as a known quantity. And a good one. He won the silver medal Sunday at the FINA 10K Marathon Swimming World Cup in Chun鈥檃n, China.
Allan Do Carmo of Brazil captured gold in one hour, 53 minutes, 04 seconds with Weinberger a close second in 1:53:08 and Esteban Enderica of Ecuador a tight third in 1:53:09. Ana Marcela Cunha of Brazil was the women鈥檚 champion in 2:03:36.
Meanwhile, sa国际传媒 will advance to the next stage in Rio Olympic qualifying in men鈥檚 volleyball as the North/Central American and Caribbean champion. sa国际传媒, captained by Fred Winters of Victoria, defeated Cuba 25-23, 19-25, 25-18, 25-17 Sunday in the gold-medal final of the NORCECA Continental Championships in Cordoba, Mexico.
The top-four teams from the tournament 鈥� sa国际传媒, Cuba, Puerto Rico and Mexico 鈥� advanced to the next round of Rio Olympic qualifying, to take place in January at a venue to be announced.
鈥淲e fought hard . . . [and] were very stable,鈥� said Winters, in a statement.
鈥淚t was a good win for us. Now we head to our professional [club] teams with a good feeling,鈥� added the 33-year-old veteran.
Standout hitter Shanice Marcelle of Victoria, a graduate of Spectrum, and the Canadian women鈥檚 volleyball team also advanced to the next stage of qualifying for the Rio Olympics by placing fourth last week at the NORCECA women鈥檚 Continental championships in Morelia, Mexico.
At the Canadian track cycling championships in Milton, Ont., the 2015 Pan Am Games gold-medallist trio of Oak Bay decathlete-turned-cyclist Evan Carey, Joe Veloce of St. Catharines, Ont., and Hugo Barrette of Magdalen Islands, Que., spun to dominant victory in the men鈥檚 sprint as the team continues its pedal push to the 2016 Rio Olympics.
In rowing, 18-year-old Caileigh Filmer of Victoria continues to build her credentials for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic quadrennial. The Mount Douglas Secondary graduate, who rows in the NCAA Pac-12 for Cal-Berkeley, won the senior and U-23 women鈥檚 pair with Hillary Janssens from Cloverdale over the weekend at the Canadian championships in St. Catharines. That adds to Filmer鈥檚 burgeoning list of successes, which includes medals last year at the Youth Olympics and world junior championships.
