Mariam Abdul-Rashid of Oshawa
A good dozen athletes from Durham Area are on their method to Paris to signify Canada within the 2024 Olympic Video games.
13 native athletes have been named however defending world champion decathlete Pierce LePage of Whitby needed to pull out when a herniated disc he suffered in April didn’t reply to remedy in time for him to compete.
LePage was anticipated to provide Canada an enormous 1-2 punch within the prestigious decathlon competitors with defending gold medalist Damian Warner of London.
Canada’s observe staff will nonetheless have a powerful Durham presence with three sprinters set to compete, together with Mariam Abdul-Rashid of Oshawa within the woman’s 100-metre hurdles and 4×100-metre relay, Duan Asemota of Ajax within the males’s 100-metres and 4×100-metre relay and Sade McCreath of Ajax within the ladies’s 4×100-metre relay. McCreath can be an alternate on the 100-metre dash staff.
Abdul-Rashid and Asemota prepare on the Pace Academy in Pickering, the identical membership that produces observe famous person (and defending 200-metre gold medalist) Andre De Grasse of Markham. Maple’s Christopher Morales Williams (400-metres) additionally trains on the Pace Academy, run by former Olympian Tony Sharpe.
Three soccer gamers from Durham shall be competing in Paris, together with beginning goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan of Whitby and fullback Jayde Riviere of Pickering – every of their second Olympic soccer event – and ahead Nichelle Prince of Ajax, who shall be competing in her third.
All three return as defending Olympic champions.
Badminton participant Nyal Yakura of Pickering, canoe sprinter Courtney Scott of Pickering, Water polo staff member Emma Wright of Whitby and gymnast Ava Stewart of Bowmanville will all be competing of their second straight Olympics.
Jessica Phoenix of Cannington
Equestrian athlete Jessica Phoenix of Cannington, a five-time Pan Am Video games medalist, was additionally in Tokyo however was pressured to withdraw after her horse Pavarotti suffered an damage within the ultimate prep occasion.
Yakura is the back-to-back Pan Am Video games gold medalist in males’s doubles whereas Stewart, nonetheless simply 18, solely turned eligible for Tokyo when the pandemic delayed the Video games by a 12 months.
Scott has been competing on the senior stage for Canada since 2015 whereas Wright was the youngest participant – by 4 years – on Canada’s roster in her first senior worldwide competitors in 2013.
Different athletes from the Area competing in Paris are Justin Barnes of Pickering in crusing (49’er) and Justin Lui of Pickering in males’s volleyball.
The ladies’s soccer event will get underway July 25 when Canada meets New Zealand. Water polo and badminton start July 27; crusing, gymnastics and volleyball July 28; equestrian July 29; canoeing July 30; and the athletics (sprints) on August 2.
Nyal Yakura of Pickering
INdurham’s Editorial Requirements and Insurance policies
