Liendo, Kharun win swimming medals, as Team Canada’s women’s 8s rowing team secure silver in Paris

August 3, 2024 Vaseline blog 0

Liendo, Kharun win swimming medals, as Team Canada’s women’s 8s rowing team secure silver in Paris

While the watching experience and timing for the 2024 Paris Olympics isn’t quite as challenging for Canadian viewers as it was for Tokyo 2020 or Beijing 2022, a good chunk of action during these Games happens when plenty of Canadians are fast asleep.

Whether you were crushing some zzz’s, busy at work, had family activities to take part in or just didn’t have a chance to tune in, we have you covered throughout these Olympics from start to finish, with Team Canada currently sitting at 14 medals, soon to be 15 thanks to Wyatt Sanford in boxing.

What to watch from Team Canada on Day 8:

Here’s what you may have missed on Day 8, including a silver medal for Canada’s women’s eights rowing team, and a pair of podium finishes in the 100-meter butterfly.

Team Canada continued to excel in the pool on Saturday as Josh Liendo and Ilya Kharun both medaled in the men’s 100-meter butterfly, winning silver and bronze, respectively.

Toronto’s Liendo swam hard, going neck-in-neck with Hungary’s Milak Kristof, who won the gold medal with a time of 49.90. Liendo wound up finishing just 0.09 seconds away from gold with a time of 49.99.

Montreal native Kharun wasn’t too far behind, grabbing the bronze with a time of 50.45. Kharun now has two medals in Paris after picking up silver in the men’s 200-meter butterfly earlier in the games.

Canada has a chance to pick up even more medals Saturday in the pool as Summer McIntosh, Sydney Pickrem, and Canada’s mixed medley relay team are all set to swim in final events this afternoon.

Canada’s Avalon Wasteneys, Caileigh Filmer, Jessica Sevick, Kasia Gruchalla-Wesierski, Abby Dent, Kristina Walker, Sydney Payne, Kristen Kit and Maya Meschkuleit pose with the silver medal in the women’s eight rowing final at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024, in Vaires-sur-Marne, France. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

The Canadian defending-champion women’s eights rowing team won a silver medal on Saturday morning, finishing the finals with a time of five minutes and 58.84 seconds. Romania, finishing ahead of Canada with a time of five minutes and 54.39 seconds, won gold.

Canada had to dig deep for its second-consecutive medal at the Summer Games — Canada won gold three years ago in Tokyo — after the team found itself in a battle with Great Britain in the final 500 meters.

“At the end of the day it was all about belief,” said Avalon Wasteneys of Campbell River, BC “We went out on that course and we knew that we were going to give our best possible race we could do, on the day it mattered.”

“I was just digging as deep as I could, trying to find every ounce of energy and ultimately trying to leave the race course with zero regrets,” Wasteneys added.

Four members of the Tokyo team returned to compete in Paris, including Wasteneys, Calgary’s Kasia Gruchalla-Wesierski, Toronto’s Sydney Payne, and Coxswain Kristen Kit of St. Catharines, Ont.

Joining them on their silver-medal quest in Paris were Victoria’s Caileigh Filmer, Abby Dent of Kenora, Ont., Maya Meschkuleit of Mississauga, Ont., Kristina Walker of Wolfe Island, Ont., and Jessica Sevick of Strathmore, Alta.