Marissa Papaconstantinou, Bianca Borgella among Canadian sprinters qualified for Paralympic finals | CBC Sports

Canadian sprinter Marissa Papaconstantinou will look to add a second Paralympic medal to her resume on Tuesday at Stade de France in Paris.

The 24-year-old Toronto native booked a spot in the women’s T64 200-metre final by finishing third in her heat with the fifth-fastest overall time (27.47).

Papaconstantinou won bronze in the 100m in Tokyo and added world-championship bronze medals in the 200 and 100 last summer, also in Paris.

The race will also feature world-record holder Kimberly Alemade of the Netherlands and her compatriot Marle Van Gansewinkel, who set the Paralympic record three years ago in Tokyo.

Fellow Canadian Bianca Borgella qualified for the women’s T13 100m final in her Paralympic debut later on Tuesday.

The visually impaired sprinter from Rockland, Ont., registered the fourth-fastest qualifying time (12.15) to finish second in her heat — just 0.3 seconds behind top qualifier Lamiya Valiyeva of Azerbaijan.

The 21-year-old Borgella took home bronze in the event at last year’s world championships. She will compete for her first-ever Paralympic medal at 2:13 p.m. ET.

Toronto teen Sheriauna Haase, also making her Paralympic debut, posted a season-best time to advance in the women’s T47 100m event.

The 17-year-old was the fifth-fastest qualifier, clocking 12.47 for a second-place finish in her heat.

Haase’s final is scheduled for 2:23 p.m. ET.

In the men’s T38 400 metres, Zachary Gingras of Markham, Ont., placed fifth despite a season-best time of 50.63 seconds.

The 23-year-old took bronze in the event during his Paralympic debut at Tokyo 2020.

World-record holder Jaydin Blackwell of the U.S. matched his mark to win gold at 48.49 seconds, while fellow American Ryan Medrano took silver (49.74) and Colombia’s Juan Alejandro Campas Sanchez rounded out the podium with bronze (49.92).

Anderson leads Canada to wheelchair basketball semis

Wheelchair basketball legend Pat Anderson led Canada’s men’s team into the semifinals in a monumental 79-67 win over the Netherlands.

The three-time Paralympic champion, who played all 40 minutes, delivered a dominant performance with a game-high 20 points and 20 rebounds at Bercy Arena.

“I wasn’t really expecting to play 40 minutes that game, so my head was spinning a little bit towards the end,” Anderson said. “I just went to talk to my family, and they’re super excited. We’re in a semi. I came back in 2017 [after a five-year break] just with the hope to make it to the medal rounds with this group, and it’s taken us seven long years to get there. 

“So this is a huge hurdle that we cleared, and it’s very exciting.”

Nikola Goncin and Tyler Miller also reached double digits in scoring with 16 and 10 points, respectively. Eight Canadian players scored six points or more.

The semifinals are set for Thursday, with Canada’s opponent to be determined by the winner of a game between France and the U.S.

“France is a great team and they’re at home. That first night for us was amazing playing them. And the U.S. are the best team of a generation, so it’ll be a tough match either way,” said veteran Canadian Bo Hedges.

The Canadians haven’t won a Paralympic title since the London Games in 2012. They finished second in their preliminary group with a 2-1 record after beating the Germans on Monday.

Anderson served as one of Canada’s flag-bearers in the opening ceremony.

Canadian swimmers through to finals

Four of Canada’s Paralympic swimmers reached finals on Tuesday at Paris La Défense Arena.

Katie Cosgriffe, an 18-year-old from Burlington, Ont., won her heat in the women’s S10 100m butterfly and ultimately had the second-fastest time of the day (1:07.29). She returns to the pool for the final at 2:35 p.m. ET.

Kitchener’s Alec Elliot, 28, will race in the men’s S10 100m butterfly final at 2:13 p.m. ET after securing his spot with the fifth-fastest qualifying time.

Toronto’s Sebastian Massabie placed sixth in the men’s S4 200m freestyle final with a time of 2:59.15.

Massabie, a 19-year-old Paralympic rookie, was fourth-fastest in qualifying. He placed fifth in the 100m free final on Friday.

Muskoka, Ont., native Mary Jibb, 17, finished two spots off the podium on Tuesday in the women’s S9 100m backstroke final with a time of 1:12.33.

Five of Canada’s 11 medals at the Paris Paralympics have been won in the pool.

Nicholas Bennett won Canada’s first gold medal of these Games in the men’s SB14 100m breaststroke after earning silver in the 200m freestyle, while Aurélie Rivard claimed silver in the women’s S10 100m free and bronze in the 50m free.

Canada’s women’s goalball team loses quarterfinal

The Canadian women’s goalball squad saw its Paris medal hopes come to an end with a 5-1 loss to Israel at South Paris Arena.

Two-time world champion Amy Burk found the back of the net for Canada, but the team was unable to contain Israeli co-flag-bearer Lihi Ben David, who scored four of her team’s goals.

“It’s raw. It hurts,” said Canada’s Meghan Mahon. “We worked really hard over the last three years to make it here and to show that we can podium with the best of them.

“Today was clearly not our day.”

Canada opened the tournament strong with a 10-0 rout of France before falling 2-1 to Japan and playing South Korea to a scoreless draw. They will compete in a fifth-place playoff on Wednesday against an opponent still to be determined.

“We can let this hurt right now, not getting the result that we came here for, but we still have a job to do, and it’s going to be to come out tomorrow and treat that game like the gold-medal game,” Mahon said.

Other Canadian results:

• Alison Levine and Iulian Ciobanu opened the BC4 mixed pairs boccia tournament with an 8-5 win over China’s Lin Ximei and Zheng Yuansen in Pool B. The Canadian duo next faces Croatians Davor Komar and Anamaria Arambasic at 12:50 p.m. ET.
• Equestrian Roberta Sheffield and horse Fairuza advanced to the individual freestyle Grade II event after finishing sixth in the individual event. Fellow equestrians Austen Burns, riding Happy Feet 3, and Jody Schloss, riding El Colorado, finished 12th and 17th, respectively, in the individual Grade I event. They failed to qualify for the individual freestyle event by finishing outside the top eight.
• Ryan Rousell lost in the second repechage round of the men’s sabre Category A wheelchair fencing tournament against Italy’s Edoardo Giordan.
• Fellow wheelchair fencer Trinity Lowthian came up one point short in her opening repechage round match against Brazil’s Monic Santos, falling 15-14.