London Calling

Cambridge pair are London-bound

Victoria Moors and Madeline Gardiner have grown up together in gymnastics, growing as close as sisters over countless workouts, sore muscles and long rides to meets. Next month, they'll get to take the trip of their lifetime together, too - to the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Moors, the 15-year-old phenomenon in gymnastics’ floors events, qualified for the five-person Olympic team this week after a final selection camp in Quebec. Gardiner, her 17-year-old club teammate at Dynamo Gymnastics in Hespeler, was chosen as one of two alternates.

“I’m just overjoyed. I’m so excited to be a part of this right now,” said Moors, a Cambridge-raised student at Bishop Macdonnel high school in Guelph. “I didn’t think the feeling would be this strong. But we’re taking pictures with the Canada uniform on, and it feels amazing.”

The Olympic team was formally introduced at a press conference in Ottawa Friday afternoon.

Although she’s a reserve member, Gardiner will have to train as if she’s competing, ready to fill in for an injured teammate at a moment’s notice. She’ll join Moors and the others at a training camp outside London before the Games and will prepare as if she’s competing.

The Galt Collegiate Institute student won’t stay with the team in the Athletes’ Village in London, and she’ll have to watch the performances from the stands. But she’ll be standing by if needed.

“In a way it’s really cool to be chosen, but at the same time, I want to be out there, competing,” Gardiner said. “But I’m really excited. It’s a huge honour.”

The four other gymnasts chosen for the Canadian Olympic team are Kristina Vaculik of Whitby, Brittany Rogers of Coquitlam, B.C., Dominique Pegg of Sarnia, and Ellie Black of Halifax.

In London, Canada will be in a pool with Great Britain, France and the U.S. Their competition will run from July 28 to Aug. 7.

Neither Moors or Gardiner will have to look far for help to handle the pressure of their first Olympic appearance.

Their coach at Dynamo, Elvira Saadi, will be going to London with them. Saadi, a native of Uzbekistan who helped the Russian gymnastics team win gold at the 1972 and 1976 Olympics, has also been to the Games twice as a coach.

Saadi has coached the teenagers since they were beginners at the Cambridge Kips gymnastics club, and said they have a special combination of intelligence, natural athleticism and dedication.

“They’re the whole package. You could see that from five or six years old,” she said, in an earlier interview. “Yes, they’re talented, but they’re more than that.”

Cambridge’s Mikaela Gerber, 17, wasn’t chosen for the team headed to London. She finished eight in points at the Olympic selection camp. Dynamo’s Jessica Dowling finished ninth in points.

Canadians upset by Croatia in Olympic qualifier

Croatia celebrates its first-ever Olympic berth with a win over Canada in Turkey Friday. FIBA photo

Canada’s senior women’s basketball team came within a few missed shots of going to the Olympics Friday, falling 59-56 in a semi-final upset to Croatia at their qualifying tournament in Turkey.

The Canuck squad, which includes Guelph’s Natalie Achonwa and Kitchener’s Chelsea Aubry, had a five-point lead after three quarters but were outscored 18-10 in the fourth, partly on timely fouls drawn by the Croatians.

No. 31-ranked Croatia made history by qualifying for the London Games with the victory while No. 11-ranked Canada now needs to pick itself up and win two games over the weekend to capture the last remaining Olympic berth.

“We just missed some shots that you shouldn’t at this level,” said the team’s head coach, Allison McNeil. “We’ve got to put the ball in the hoop a lot more.”

The Canadians had 22 more shots than Croatia but simply missed too many times, the coach said. One of the team’s top scorers, Kim Smith, missed two three-point shots in the final seconds that could have put the game away.

Achonwa, who sprained her ankle in Wednesday’s loss to France, made a game-time decision to join to lineup. She played 15 minutes in the match and scored seven points.

Aubry, who was limited to nine minutes of court time in the loss to the smaller Croatians, will be needed to bring a more physical presence if Canada has a hope of qualifying this weekend.

“Both of them will be key in our next two games because they’re both physical and they’re both tough as nails,” McNeill said. “I hope Chelsea can get a little bit of scoring going for us, too.”

The losers of three other quarter-final matches Friday will join Canada, which hasn’t had a women’s basketball team in the Olympics since Sydney in 2000, in the weekend playoff.

Canada, which hasn’t had a women’s basketball team in the Olympics since Sydney in 2000, will play Argentina at 1:15 p.m. (EDT) Saturday in Ankara, Turkey. You can follow that game at FIBA.com

The winner of the game will play on Sunday for the final spot available for the 2012 London Olympics.

Cambridge runners cruise through semi-finals

Two Cambridge runners will get a shot at returning to the Olympics tonight after cruising through their semi-final races at Olympic trials in Calgary. 

Preston's Nate Brannen of Cambridge took it as easy in Thursday night’s 1,500 metres semifinal,  finishing third in his semifinal to grab one of the automatic berths in Friday’s final. The top four in each semifinal plus the fastest four outside the top four advanced to the final.

“It was a qualifier, just getting through,” he told the Guelph Mercury's Rob Massey. “That was about it – relaxed as possible and just get through.”

In Friday’s final, Brannen needs to finish in the top three to secure a berth on the Canadian Olympic team. He races at 8:20 p.m. EST in a final that will include former Olympian Taylor Milne of the Speed River Track & Field Club,  who won his semifinal.

Meanwhile, Hespeler's Carmen Douma-Hussar won her semifinal with the fastest time in that round.  But her bigger challenge comes in tonight's final, where she's hoping to gain a berth on the Olympic team.

To do that, she'll need to finish in the top three with a time that meets Athletic Canada’s Olympic A standard of 4:06.00.

Racing against her in the final will also be three members of Guelph’s Speed River Track and Field Club – Hilary Stellingwerff, Malindi Elmore and Rachel Cliff.

Stellingwerff and Sifuentes have already met the A standard and only need to finish in the top three to make to the Canadian Olympic team. The others have the same criteria as Douma-Hussar: finish in the top three with a time that meets the A standard.

For live results on their races, go to the  Olympic trials website.

One win away from London

The Olympic hopes of Guelph's Natalie Achonwa and Kitchener's Chelsea Aubry go straight through Croatia.

The pair of locals can help Canada end a 12-year Olympic drought at 7:30 a.m. tomorrow morning (EST) with a win over 31st-ranked Croatia at the women's basketball Olympic qualifying tournament in Turkey.

A win in the game, which you can follow at Fiba.com, will mean a berth in the Summer Olympics.

The 11th-ranked Canadians, coming off a tough loss to France Tuesday, know they can beat Croatia.

They did that only two weeks ago, with a  66-49 win against them in exhibition action in France, thanks in part to solid defense from Kitchener's Aubry, the 10-year veteran of the team.

Achonwa was grounded for much of the game with a bout of flu, playing less than six minutes. But Aubry, the former Grand River Collegiate star, saw almost 19 minutes on the court, and played a big part in Canada's defensive effort, with three rebounds.

Croatia, meanwhile, is coming off an 83-75 win over Korea on Wednesday.

If Canada loses tomorrow, they'd need to win their next two games to earn the final berth into the 2012 London Olympics.

Wilkinson ready for The Final Countdown

In our interview with swimmer Julia Wilkinson in Victoria, she revealed the hilarious way she coaches herself to push in the final 20 metres of a tough race. How? By singing "The Final Countdown" by '80s hair band Europe in her head, of course.

It's a trick the Stratford native and 2008 Olympian has used since college. It's just kind of stuck, even after a shoulder injury that kept her from competing for almost a year. 

“The last 20 metres, it feels like a piano falls on you,” she said. “What I would do is start singing that song in my head… and then I had shoulder surgery and didn’t race for a whole year. In my first race back, I started hearing the Final Countdown again.”

We spent a day with Wilkinson and her fiancee Shane Minks at her training base in Victoria this week. Watch for an in-depth story and video by Mat McCarthy July 7. 

Moors shines at Olympic selection camp

Cambridge's four gymnasts at an Olympic selection camp in Quebec have one more day to convince Gymnastics Canada they deserve a spot on the team going to London.

After competition Tuesday, Victoria Moors is holding onto second place out of 11 competitors and appears a lock to make the London team.

The 15-year-old was ranked second in points behind Whitby’s Kristina Vaculik after the first all-around event. The gymnasts will perform another comeptition Thursday.

The London team, which will have five full members and one alternate, will be announced in Ottawa this Friday at 1 p.m. It's the first full Olympic team Canada has sent in gymnastics since 2004.

Fighting for the fifth and final spot are three other local gymnasts.

Moors' Dynamo teammate Madeline Gardiner currently sits in seventh place after one day of competition. Grand River Collegiate's Mikaela Gerber, who trains at the Oakville Gymnastics Club, is sitting in eighth. Jessica Dowling, also with Dynamo Gymnastics, is in ninth.

Results from the 2012 Canadian championships last month in Regina will also count towards the Olympic selection.

Douma-Hussar driven by 'full-fledged forest fire'

CAMBRIDGE — Motherhood was calling Carmen Douma-Hussar. But the pull from running was never far behind.

In 2008, after narrowly missing the cut-off for the Beijing Olympics, the 1,500-metre runner walked away from her sport to start a family with her husband Chris Hussar. She gave birth to a baby girl, Pippa, and began a new life as a mom.

But running quickly pulled her back. By 2010, the Hespeler-raised track star had started training again, and promptly began winning races.

Not that she had anything to prove — as a Canadian record holder in the indoor 1,500-metres, and finalist at the 2004 Summer Olympics, 2005 world championships and the 2006 Commonwealth Games, Douma-Hussar could have retired with a sparkling career.

Simply put, she missed running competitively.

Now at 35, Douma-Hussar is giving the Olympics another shot. She’ll get her chance to book her ticket to London when she races at the Olympic trials in Calgary this week.

Douma-Hussar knows making it to another Games is a long shot — her season best in the 1,500-metres this year is 4:11. She needs to run an Olympic A+ standard of 4:05.70 to qualify for London, a tall order given Calgary’s high-elevation.

“I’m not saying it’s an impossibility. Obviously I’m still dreaming,” she said. “I still think if I have the race of a lifetime I could get the standard in Calgary.”

The new mom gets to make her comeback cheered on by Pippa, her most dedicated tiny, blond-haired fan who has grown up at the edge of running tracks.

“When I had my daughter, I didn’t know what it would be like to come back, or if it would be possible,” she said. “It’s really exciting now. It’s a whole different perspective with her standing on the sidelines.”

But Douma-Hussar will also have to go for it without one of her biggest supporters, her father Martin, watching. He died after collapsing in November 2008 while out on a run with her mother, Alke.

“I feel like I’m a different person now than I was 2008. At the trials in ’08, he was there to give me a hug. My mom and dad were the perfect cheerleaders,” she said.

In Calgary, she’ll run under the banner of the Guelph Track & Field Club, which she followed her brother into in Grade 8. Although she’s lived in the U.S. for years and now calls Alabama home, she’s remained loyal to the Guelph club and her former coach Albert Tschirhart.

“There will be a lot of people with Guelph Track rooting for her,” he said.

Her comeback is all the more remarkable considering Douma-Hussar was thinking about shutting down for the season only a few weeks ago. A mystery ailment was causing her to slow down at a point in the year when she should have been getting faster.

Blood work was inconclusive, although a doctor suggested she increase her intake of vitamin B and iron supplements. It appears to have worked.

“A month ago, the way I was feeling, it wasn’t fun anymore. But in the last three of four weeks, I feel like I’ve really come around,” she said. “It’s been a night and day difference in how I’m feeling. I feel like there’s been 50 pounds taken off my back.”

It’s a long way from Douma-Hussar’s days at Woodland Christian High School in Breslau, where she blossomed into one of the best high school runners in Canada. She’s since sold her house in Philadelphia, too, where she went to university on an athletic scholarship at Villanova University.

But despite training steadily since about age 14, she’s still got a pure love of competing, Tschirhart said. That’s why her career may stretch on for many years, if she wants it to.

“She’s the embodiment of internal motivation. She’s not racing against other people, but only herself,” he said. “I don’t think we’ll ever be in a position to count her out.”

In Calgary, Douma-Hussar will be up against a tough crowd in the 1,500-metre race, including Hilary Stellingwerff and Malindi Elmore of the Speed River Track & Field Club in Guelph.

Stellingwerff is seeking a top-three finish, which would send her to her first Olympics. Elmore, the 2004 Olympian, needs to run the tough A+ standard to get to the Games.

Douma-Hussar wants to do all that and win the race. It turns out, being a mom and having that burning desire to win aren’t contradictory things.

“I’ve got that competitive spirit again, and that’s the fun part about it all,” she said. “I’ve got that fire again. It’s like a full-fledged forest fire.”

Canadians drop Game 2 to France

Canada's basketball women couldn't come back from a bad first quarter against France Tuesday, losing Game 2 of their Olympic qualifying tournament 56-47.

The loss, despite a late game charge, means the  Canadians will still play a semi-final game Friday that could result in an Olympic berth. Canada will play Croatia at 7:30 a.m. EST.

The winner of the game will earn a berth, while the loser will still have a chance along with the three other losing teams in the quarter-finals.  To qualify after a loss, they'd need to win their next two games to earn the final berth into the 2012 London Olympics.

One of the team's top scorers, Tamara Tatham, said in an interview after Monday's 89-23 blowout of Mali that the Canadians need to keep their confidence up if they're going to win their first Olympic berth in 12 years. You can watch that above, courtesy of FIBA.

Kitchener's Chelsea Aubry played 15 minutes in the loss to France, while Guelph's Natalie Achonwa was on the court for nine minutes, scoring four points.

"We really battled hard tonight against a very good team in France," said head coach Allison McNeill. "When we cut the lead to six points I thought we had a chance to pull through, but we just didn’t make enough shots and our shooting percentage showed it."

"I’m proud how our team executed tonight and we were very tough defensively."

Tatham, of Brampton, and Shona Thorburn of Hamilton scored seven points apiece for Canada. Krista Phillips of Saskatoon added eight rebounds and six points.

France's Isabelle Yacoubou led all scorers with 15 points.

The top five teams in the 12-team tournament will earn berths to London. Canada is ranked 11th in the world, or fourth at the tournament.

A final showdown in Calgary

Cambridge's Nate Brannen needs to place in the top three in the 1,500-metre race in Calgary this week.

This is a big week for many of Waterloo Region and Guelph's athletes with hopes of competing in London this summer.

The Canadian Olympic track and field trials, which start tomorrow in Calgary, are the final challenge for many events determining who goes to the Games and who stays behind. Given the city's high elevation, at 3,438 feet, those needing to beat tough Olympic standards in Calgary will have a difficult time.

The list of local athletes hoping for big things this week includes:

Hurdler Adam Kunkel of Paisley,who needs to run the 400-metre race in 49.50 seconds or less to qualify for his first Olympics. He's been just six-tenths of a second short this season.

Long jumper Kenen Shadd of Kitchener, who needs to jump the Olympic A standard of 17.10 metres while nursing a hamstring injury and torn knee tendons.

St. Clements' Tarah Korir, who must run the 5,000-metre race in 15:20 or less to qualify for her first Olympics.

Preston's Nate Brannen, who must finish in the top three in the 1,500 metre race to get to his second Olympics. The 2008 Olympian has already beat the Olympic A standard of 3:35.50 this season.

Carmen Douma-Hussar of Hespeler, who at 35 is hoping to run the Olympic A+ standard of 4:05.70 in the 1,500-metre race to qualify for her second Olympics.

Steeplechaser Alex Genest of the Speed River Track & Field Club, who needs to bounce back from rolling his ankle a few weeks ago and place in the top three in the 3,000-metre race, after already beating the Olympic A standard this season.

Hilary Stellingwerff, also of Speed River, needs to be in the top three in the women's 1,500-metre race after beating the Olympic A standard earlier this season.

Former Olympian Taylor Milne, also of Speed River, needs to run the 1,500-metre race at 3:35.50 or faster. With Calgary's elevation, that's all but impossible. He came oh-so close at a race last Friday in London, running 3:37.51.

Canadians cruise to victory in Olympic qualifier

Canada walked all over Mali in a lopsided victory Monday to kick off their Olympic qualifying tournament in Turkey.

Kitchener’s Chelsea Aubry and Guelph’s Natalie Achonwa both played key roles in the 89-23 win. Aubry had five rebounds while Achonwa scored seven points.

The 11th-ranked Canadians now play the tough 8th-ranked French squad Wednesday afternoon. But the win against Mali takes the pressure off — guaranteeing the women a one-game quarter-final shot on Thursday to qualify.

A win in the quarter finals and they can book their tickets to London. A loss means they would play other quarter-final losers for a final berth.

Canada is hoping for its first appearance at the Olympics since 2000. Twelve teams are fighting for five berths in Turkey.

The Canadians, with their unflashy, defensive style of ball, have lost their past four games against France, dating back to 2010. That includes a 66-41 blowout June 16 in exhibition action, which ended a three-game winning streak that including a big win over fourth-ranked Czechs.

For the box score from Monday's game, click here.

Canada will play France Tuesday at 2:15 p.m. EST. The game will be available to watch online at FIBATV.com and also to follow on FIBA Live-Stats.