London Calling

Escaping to the pool

We sat down with Andrew Ford yesterday, the Guelph swimmer hoping to represent Canada this summer in London.

Ford, 22, is preparing for the toughest event in all of swimming – the 400 metre individual medley. It’s an unforgiving underwater battle where muscles are pushed to crippling levels of pain, a technically-demanding combination of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and front crawl where the difference between winning and losing can be a hundredth of a second.

He's swimming 55,000 metres a week to get ready, and consuming 6,000 calories a day to fuel his body. Preparing for the Olympic time trials has been a full-time job for three years.

But for a guy who's been swimming competitively since he was 10, it's not just about the love of the  sport. For him, swimming is also about the simple serenity of being in water.

"I have absolute clarity in the water. It helps me block out the rest of the world for two hours at a time," he said. "It's wonderful."

Watch for a full profile on Andrew and a video from Mat McCarthy this Saturday.

Moors headed for Madison Square Garden

Cambridge's Victoria Moors, one of Canada's best chances for an Olympic medal in gymnastics floor events, is a last-minute addition to the 2012 AT&T American Cup at New York City's Madison Square Garden this weekend.

Moors, the 2011 Canadian junior national champion, was a member of the Canadian team that finished second at the Olympic qualifier in January that secured a team berth to the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Moors, 15, and Ryuzo Sejima of Japan were called in at the last minute to replace Germany's Nadine Jarosch and Philipp Boy.

Live coverage of the AT&T American Cup will air on NBC Sports beginning at 1 p.m. on March 3.

 

Jarvis has a busy pre-Olympic season

Korey Jarvis' road to London is a long, hard one.

The Guelph wrestler won the right to advance to the Pan American Olympic Games Qualifying Tournament in Kissimmee, Fla.  on March 23 to 25 by winning the Greco-Roman 96-kilogram weight class title last December in Winnipeg.

But qualifying meant he had to get through four major events in a three-month span.

First, he had the Jan. 21 Guelph Open at the Mitchell Athletics Centre. Then there's the Canadian senior championships at St. Catharines March 15 to 18.

Last week, Jarvis had to compete at the Pan American senior championships at Colorado Springs, where he lost a battle for bronze to Justin Ruiz.

Ruiz, a past World bronze medalist who's won this event four times, earned a 4-0, 1-3, 3-0 win over Jarvis. You can watch that match above. 

Andrew Ford on shortlist to make Olympics

The betting money has it Guelph's Andrew Ford will be swimming for Canada this summer in London.

Just ask Swimming Canada's CEO and national coach Pierre Lafontaine, the man who's trying to turn Canada into one of the top swimming nations in the world. He sees big things from the 22-year-old, who competes in the same grueling event as Michael Phelps.

"He's certainly one of the contenders to make the Olympic team, there's no doubt about that," Lafontaine said.  "He's progressed quite a lot and I think there's still a lot of upside to him."

This week, we'll catch up with Andrew at the Univerity of Guelph Pool, where he's training hard for the Olympic time trials in late March in Montreal.

Canada falls short to top-ranked South Africa

Canada drew first blood but top-ranked South Africa proved too much in a game that only meant bragging rights in New Delhi.

Kitchener's Brienne Stairs and her teammates will now play Poland in a playoff to avoid last place.

The Canadians had hoped the New Delhi Olympic qualifier would be their ticket to the Games in London, but that chance faded into a disappointing 1-3-1 record.

Natalie Sourisseau scored Canada's lone goal in the match that ended 1-4 for South Africa.

Stairs almost netted Canada's second point, with a good run along the back line, but her cross into empty space in front of the goal didn't find any takers.

Watch video highlights of the game here.

Although London is not in Team Canada's future, the team says it's leaving India with new goals. It's looking ahead to the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, and "is committed to doing whatever it takes" to qualify for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Pavan plays through leg injury, leads team to win

Kitchener's Sarah Pavan ignored injury and helped lead her Italian professional team to a win in the first game of European quarter-final volleyball playoffs Thursday night.

Earlier reports from her team, MC-Carnaghi Villa Cortese, suggested her coaches were monitoring her condition but said she wasn't yet practising full-time with her teammates.

The team's website described it as a "bad groin injury," received in an earlier game.

"I skewered myself on the corner of a table while running down a ball during our match on Sunday. I had to leave the match and get eight  stitches so I was in some pain for the few days after that," Pavan explained, in an email.

But the left-handed Canadian striker obviously felt good enough to play against rival Bergamo last night - leading her team to a 3-1 victory (21-25, 25-15, 25-20, 25-19). 

She was visibly in some discomfort, though, gritting her teeth throughout the game, according to the team's website.

"I really wanted to play last night... so after testing it out on Wednesday, I felt that I could give it a shot. Luckily, it worked out," Pavan said.

Game two against Bergamo is next Wednesday, Feb. 29.

"We're really excited about the game next week. A chance to play in the final four would be a big accomplishment for our team," she said.

After the Champions League playoffs, Pavan will rejoin the national team in Winnipeg in April. They leave for their Olympic qualifier in Mexico on April 26, ranked 22nd in the world.

Victoria Moors' gold medal performance

Check out the  floor routine that earned Cambridge gymnast Victoria Moors the gold medal the recent 2012 Elite Canada competition in Mississauga. 

Performances like this are helping the 15-year-old cement her position on the gymnastics team Canada will send to London this summer. She plans to spend the next six months polishing her routine, according to this interview.

Pavan injured, team starts European quarter-finals

Record file photo

Sarah Pavan's professional volleyball team begins its quarter-final showdown tonight - but may be without its star, left-handed Canadian spiker.

Kitchener's Pavan, who is practising with her pro team but reportedly suffering from a bad groin injury,  has led Italy's Villa Cortese to the women’s Champions League quarterfinal playoff match against Volley Bergamo.

The Champions League is a three-month tournament that determines the top professional volleyball team in Europe.

The next game between the two teams is Wednesday, Feb. 29. The winner of the series will advance to the final four later in March.

Whatever happens in Europe, the Kitchener-raised volleyball player won't get much downtime afterward. She's expected to rejoin the Canadian national team April 10, and start training for the Olympic qualifier in Mexico later that month. 

Canadians grab elusive win, but Olympic dream over

Kitchener's Brienne Stairs takes a shot on net against Ukraine. Photo courtesy FIH / Stanislas Brochier

The Canadian women's field hockey team pulled off that elusive first win in New Delhi early Wednesday morning, beating Poland 1-0.

But despite the victory, the team now sits in fourth place in their pool - meaning their hope for an Olympic berth has ended. The women have one game left, against top-ranked South Africa. That matchup is this Friday at 3:30 a.m.

"We are obviously disappointed to lose the opportunity to qualify for London,” said coach Louis Mendonca.

“But we are still committed to finishing as high as possible in the tournament.  In today’s match we had great mental focus and we executed the game plan better than our last match.  We look forward to competing against South Africa."

The lone goal of the hard-nosed game against Poland came in the 65th minute of the match, when Stephanie Jameson fired home a penalty stroke to give the lead to Canada.

The team, which includes Kitchener forward Briene Stairs, bounced back from a 2-5 loss to Ukraine Monday night. The win against Poland leaves the team with a 1-2-1 record in the Olympic qualifying tournament.

Stairs, a former Forest Heights and Guelph Gryphons star, has been kept to one goal in the must-win tournament, in a 2-2 draw against Italy on Saturday.

The top two teams in the five-nation round-robin tourney will face off in a one-game final, the winner advancing to London.

For updates, visit http://www.fieldhockey.ca/Women2012OQ

Eric Gillis - the other pride of Nova Scotia

Forget Alexander Keith's Pale Ale. The real pride of Nova Scotia just might be Eric Gillis, a skinny marathoner who now lives and trains in Guelph.

The 31-year-old Antigonish-raised runner is one of a small handful of athletes from the east coast province who have a good shot of representing Canada this summer in London, according to the Halifax Chronicle Herald.

But first, Gillis has to be one of three Canadians chosen for the marathon event.  The 2008 Olympian in the 10,000 metres has already met the qualifying standard to run the men’s marathon in 2012, but he's pursued by several other runners who want to take his place. 

If two runners pass Gillis in the coming months, he'll need to beat their times at a spring marathon to reclaim his position.

Still, Gillis' development into one of Canada's top marathoners is amazing for an athlete who didn't even run his first  marathon until 2010. When he cracked the Olympic standard in Toronto last October, sprinting to the finish line in 2:11:28, he beat the cut off by a second.

One of his main rivals, Regina's Simon Bairu, has taken some of the heat off Gillis. Bairu has turned his attention to the 10,000 metres after he was unable to beat the time in Houston in January - virtually clinching a second trip to the Olympics for Gillis.