Mississauga’s Chris Pellini and his crew mates in the men’s K-4 (four-man kayak) will paddle for gold and glory in the K-4 1,000-metre kayak race early Friday morning in Beijing.
A last-second thrust at the finish line allowed the Canadians to qualify this morning at about 4:40 a.m. Mississauga time in the semi-final of their event at the Beijing Olympics.
The final canoe and kayak race of the day saw the young Canadian quartet, which includes Pellini, Burlington's Brady Reardon and Angus Mortimer and Rhys Hill of Ottawa, edge out the Australian team for a spot in the racing final with a time of 3:02.572 minutes.
Meanwhile, Canada’s men’s field hockey team has an opportunity to make history.
Thanks to the heroics of Mississauga’s Wayne Fernandes in yesterday’s 5-3 victory over South Africa at the Beijing Olympics, Canada has an opportunity to secure its best-ever finish when it take on Belgium tomorrow for ninth place.
Fernandes, 29, who has 157 caps with the national team, paced the attack, along with B.C.’s Conner Grimes, with two goals each, as Canada improved to 1-3-1.
Fernandes scored his first goal at 31 minutes to knot the score at 2-2. The Philip Pocock Secondary School graduate added another marker in the 46th minute.
After starting the tournament with losses to world powerhouses Australia and the Netherlands, the Canadian team, with Mississaugans Fernandes, Ranjeev Deol and Scott Sandison in the lineup, has continued to improve. They lost 3-1 to Pakistan after jumping out to a 1-0 lead on a goal by Deol, and tied Great Britain 1-1.
Elsewhere, Mississauga Track and Field Club sprinters Pierre Browne and Anson Henry failed to advance beyond the quarter-finals in the 100-metre sprint, but they will have one more chance when the 4x100-metre relay races get underway tomorrow morning.
The Mississauga club’s Nicole Forrester competes tomorrow morning in the high jump.
Having already competed are former Mississaugans Tobias Oriwol, who was seventh in the men’s 200-metre backstroke semi-final, and wrestler Ohenewa Akuffo, who lost both of her matches in wrestling’s 72-kilogram weight class.
Mississauga’s Jonelle Filigno and Robyn Gayle were members of the Canadian women’s soccer team that lost 2-1 in extra time to the United States in the semi-finals.
dwiner@mississauga.net
