This coverage was first sent as an email newsletter to our subscribers. Sign up to receive it, for free, on our Ottawa at the Canada Games page. Newsletter by Tyler Reis-Sanford, Keiran Gorsky, Isabella Disley, Dan Plouffe & Farrah Philpot After delayed flights and opening-day games postponed due to rain, Ontario’s men’s softball team finally got off to the hot start they were looking for in two games of action Wednesday at the St. John’s 2025 Canada Summer Games. “We didn’t take the delays too hard,” Ottawa’s Conner Hopper said in an interview with the Ottawa Sports Pages’ Tyler Reis-Sanford. “We watched some Team Ontario box lacrosse, so we were still doing stuff as a team and trying to support other Team Ontario athletes.” Ontario opened the day against New Brunswick with style, as Durham’s Alex McGillivray hit a first-pitch home run to set the tone for the rest of the day. Not to be outdone, West Carleton Electric’s Conner Hopper answered later with his own grand slam. “I feel like I got the monkey off my back,” indicated Hopper. “It’s not good to start in a slump, it’s always good to get that first one. Hopefully I’ll just keep it rolling from there.” West Carleton Electric’s Conner Hopper is the lone local player on Ontario’s men’s softball team for St. John’s 2025. Photo provided Although Ontario went on to win the game 17-2, Hopper said sometimes starting off so hot can lull you into a false sense of confidence and comfort, which he felt contributed to a slow start in their next game against Nova Scotia. Despite an early deficit, Ontario fought back to win the game 10-3, thanks in part to the support of the crowd and their fellow Team Ontario athletes. “I’ve got a lot of support from back home, that helps,” underlined Hopper. “We’ve got a bunch of Harbourites here from Fitzroy Harbour, and I’ve got both my parents out here.” Due to the first-day rain delays, Ontario will have a packed schedule going forward, with three games on both Thursday and Friday, including a matchup with British Columbia that Hopper has bookmarked. “Nick Neid, their pitcher, he’s on the U23 national team right now as a 20-year-old,” Hopper noted. “I think he has like 44 strikeouts in two games, something crazy. B.C. is definitely a game we have circled on the calendar.” Hopper and the rest of Team Ontario will play five more games before that final preliminary round matchup on Friday night however. In between comes tests against Newfoundland, Alberta, Quebec, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Lots of Ws and Qs for Ottawa athletes
Will Batley (left) in the men’s 4×100 m relay prelims. Photo: Howie Adams / Canada Games Local track and field athletes performed well in qualifying for finals in all of their events Wednesday. CANI Athletics young star Will Batley led all sprinters with a sparkling 20.84-second clocking in the men’s 200 metres heats. The time – with a 2.8 metre-per-second tailwind, a little above the allowed 2.0 reading for official records – was less than a tenth of a second off his personal best mark set in June of 2024. A hamstring injury kept the West Carleton Secondary School sprinter out of high school competition earlier this year, but he’ll enter the weekend as a favourite come the finals. Jessica Gymafi of the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club and University of Ottawa Gee-Gees continued her successful and busy month, solidly qualifying for Saturday’s women’s shot put final. Gymafi ranked fourth out of 17 athletes with a throw of 12.70 m, just 8 cm shy of the third-place spot. 2023 U Sports and 2025 Canadian senior high jump champion Thomas Sénéchal-Becker of CANI Athletics kept his momentum going in the first round of jumping. The 22-year-old uOttawa grad was successful in both his attempts at 1.90 m and then 1.93 m to easily clinch a spot in the 12-man final. Sénéchal-Becker leapt 2.11 m to win the nationals in Ottawa a few weeks ago and has a personal-best of 2.17 m. The Lions’ Zach Jeggo continued his stellar start to the meet by helping Team Ontario place first in the first heat and overall in the men’s 4×400 m relay prelims. Ontario’s 3:13.12 time was closely followed by Alberta just over a second behind them, but the two frontrunners stood out from the rest of the pack significantly. Liam Davis. Photo: Howie Adams / Canada Games Liam Davis of the Lions and University of Guelph Gryphons had a solid outing in the men’s hammer throw, finishing fifth amid a talented field of throwers. His 50.69 m effort landed in the same sector as Jake McEachern of Alberta’s winning mark of 58.94 m. Ontario went undefeated in the wrestling team competitions Wednesday, dominating their challengers in duel meets. The Ontario men blanked Yukon 55-0 and then dominated Prince Edward Island 50-1, with National Capital Wrestling Club’s Dexter Bates scoring full points against Yukon and a 4-1 victory over PEI in his 65-kilogram contests. The Ontario women were twice as busy, but equally unblemished, winning all four of their duels. They opened their tightly-packed schedule with back-to-back 53-0 clean sweeps of the Northwest Territories and Yukon, then followed those up with a strong 48-5 win over PEI. To close the day, the well-practiced Ontario team handled New Brunswick 43-10, with NCWC’s Makinleigh Courtney scoring a pin over New Brunswick’s Ella Dunn in less than 30 seconds in 59 kg competition. Ottawa’s Deng Yout and the Ontario men’s volleyball team shook off some of Tuesday’s rust with a clean three-set sweep of New Brunswick. Ontario looked much more confident and coordinated in the match, and handled serves and spikes well from a tough New Brunswick team that took two sets off of Alberta in earlier action. Team Ontario men’s volleyball. Photo: Jeremy Harnum / Canada Games After winning a battle with B.C. Tuesday, Ontario dropped its first game in women’s volleyball 3-2 to Alberta Wednesday. Ottawa’s Jasmine Chrétien, Eva Génier and Team Ontario won the first set 25-23, then lost the next two 21-25, 27-29 before forcing a fifth set with a 25-16 statement win. Both sides were evenly matched, and had a number of long, well-executed rallies, but it was Alberta that triumphed in the final set 15-7. Despite losing the match, Ontario only had a -3 point differential across the five sets. In women’s baseball, Ontario slid back from first place with a 15-5 defeat to Alberta. Ontario scored a run in the top of the first inning, but Alberta answered quickly with three runs of their own in the bottom. Pitching was a difference-maker in the game, as Ontario had a hard time making contact early, and had a few errors and walks on the defensive side that ended up costing them runs. In the evening, Ottawa’s Sophia Audet, Sofia Milks and Ontario took on a host Newfoundland team hungry for its first win. Newfoundland came out swinging, and took a quick 2-0 lead in the first inning. From there, Ontario hit a hot streak and lit up the scoreboard, and within the blink of an eye, held a commanding 19-4 lead by the end of the third. Newfoundland looked to close the gap and avoid a mercy rule to end the game, but Ontario’s pitching and fielding proved too strong, registering three consecutive outs to finish early after the top of the fourth.Day 13 Preview: Diver Ella Lindsay looks to expand ever-growing medal collection
Ella Lindsay. Photo: Jeremy Harnum / Canada Games She’s already got one medal in the bag and she narrowly missed a second Wednesday in fourth place for the women’s 3 m springboard, but diver Ella Lindsay’s strongest event lies ahead at the Canada Summer Games. The 10 m platform event is her mojo, but Lindsay has shown that she excels in all diving disciplines, as her giant collection of medals from the 2025 season will attest. The 15-year-old Nepean-Ottawa Diving Club athlete kicked off her season with a bronze medal performance in her debut U19 international event at the Dresden International Youth Diving Meet in Germany. Ella Lindsay. Photo: Isabella Disley Lindsay was the star performer of the meet and for her hometown club at the May 16-18 provincials at Nepean Sportsplex, winning half of her events by a commanding margin of over 25 points. A month ago, she added medals of each colour at the junior elite nationals in Edmonton. Lindsay won a bronze medal in the Canada Games-opening artistic diving event on Tuesday as one of the younger competitors in the under-20 competition. Facing more experienced divers is becoming a new normal for Lindsay. She made her senior international debut for Canada in Gatineau at the Canada Cup in early June, which came on the heels on May’s Summer Senior National Championships in Saskatoon, where she competed alongside Olympian, mentor and fellow NODC product Kate Miller for the first time. “It was super thrilling to be honest to see how well she performs under pressure,” Lindsay said of Miller in an interview with the Ottawa Sports Pages’ Keiran Gorsky. “I’m really glad I got that experience.” Lindsay admitted her expectations weren’t terribly high for the senior nationals, but to her own surprise, she advanced to the finals in two events and landed a fourth-place finish in the 10 m platform, three spots behind the victor, Miller. Ella Lindsay. Photo: Matt Murnaghan / Canada Games Less surprised by Lindsay’s rise is her NODC coach, Fernando Henderson. Ever since the former gymnast arrived at NODC after being fascinated by watching the Rio 2016 Olympic diving on TV, Henderson was immediately impressed by Lindsay’s work ethic and demeanour. “She is an amazing young girl,” Henderson highlighted in an interview with the Ottawa Sports Pages’ Isabella Disley. “She trains hard, she doesn’t skip any of the dryland training. She does every exercise, every skill on the trampoline, she doesn’t cheat. She actually asks for more.” Although she’s one of the younger athletes at many of her recent competition, Lindsay stands out as a leader and role model at her own club. “All the kids look up to her,” Henderson indicates. “She’s so nice that all the divers from other teams or even coaches love her because she’s so sweet, she’s so nice. “She’s a very skilled, very talented girl, physically and mentally. She’s quiet and shy and timid, but she holds it inside.” Lindsay has three more events remaining at the Canada Games. The women’s 1 m springboard goes Thursday, her signature platform competition is Friday and the mixed team event is Sunday. Meanwhile, Rafael Serey-Cormier will also be in action Thursday with the men’s 3 m springboard. The former NODC athlete who now competes for Gatineau made it to the men’s 1 m springboard final Wednesday, placing 12th. Other local athletes in action Thursday: After a perfect day 1 for Ontario, the men’s and women’s wrestling team events continue Thursday with the conclusion of the preliminary pool events. Dexter Bates and the Ontario men have duel meets with New Brunswick, Saskatchewan and Quebec, while Makinleigh Courtney and the Ontario women take on Quebec and Alberta. Following her fifth-place performance in the technical routine, Madison Murphy has her free routine Thursday afternoon in the second of three total swims in the women’s solo artistic swimming competition. Danica Menard and Fiona Cortes-Browne take on Manitoba Thursday night needing a draw or win to advance to the medal round of the women’s soccer tournament. Deng Yout and the 2-0 Ontario volleyball men face Alberta in the afternoon to determine which side will top their pool, while Jasmine Chrétien, Eva Génier and the 1-1 Ontario volleyball women take on Nova Scotia late morning. Sophia Audet and Sofia Milks finish women’s baseball pool play Thursday against B.C., and Hopper has men’s softball contests with Newfoundland, Alberta and Quebec.Ottawa at the Canada Games Daily Newsletter
A huge team of 48 Ottawa athletes is competing at the St. John’s 2025 Canada Summer Games in Newfoundland. The Ottawa Sports Pages will be sending out a free daily email newsletter with recaps, previews and profiles throughout the Aug. 9-24 national youth multi-sport event. Notice: JavaScript is required for this content. By clicking on the submit button, you consent to receive the above newsletter from the Ottawa Sports Pages. You may unsubscribe by clicking on the link at the bottom of our emails. Ottawa Sports Pages | 21 Kolo Dr., Ashton, Ont., K0A 1B0 | 613-261-5838Related
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