Andrew Lahodinskij/COC, Mark Blinch/COC, Darren Calabrese/COC
It's shaping up to be an action-packed weekend with qualification for Paris 2024 on the line for some of Team Canada's athletes, including race walkers at the IAAF World Championships Race Walking in Antalya, Turkey, and sailors at the Last Chance Regatta in Hyères, France. .
Canadian track and field athletes will compete in the first event on the Diamond League circuit in Xiamen, China, while Canadian divers will compete in this season's Water Diving World Cup Finals in Xi'an, China. The World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship kicks off this weekend in Östersund, Sweden, while the Beach Pro Tour Elite16 stops in Tepic, Mexico.
Here's what you don't want to miss:
Athletics
The 2024 Diamond League Tour kicks off this weekend in Xiamen, China, with several Canadian stars set to compete.
Sarah Mitton will compete in the women's shot put. Last season saw Mitton earn her first Diamond League win, as well as two silver medals on the track. She capped her successful season with a silver medal at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest in August. The achievement marks Canada's first ever World Championship medal in the women's shot put.
Mitton co-captained Team Canada at the World Championships alongside 800 meter runner Marco Arup, who also made history in the event by capturing Canada's first ever gold medal in the event. Both Arup and Mitton will be athletes to watch in Xiamen and on the way to Paris 2024.
READ: Sarah Mitton shoots for her Olympic goals and inspires the next generation
Fellow Tokyo 2020 Olympian Regan Yi will also be on the starting line in Xiamen, where he will race in the 3,000m steeplechase. Xiamen is the first of 15 Diamond League stops throughout the season, with the Diamond League final taking place in Brussels in September.
But Xiamen is not the only big meet happening in the world of athletics this weekend. The World Athletics Team Championships in race walking will be held on Sunday in the Turkish city of Antalya. The competition is a qualifying event for the mixed walking marathon and relay at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The marathon mixed relay is new to the Olympic programme, replacing the men's 50 km race. The mixed relay event will see teams of men and women complete the marathon distance of 42.195km in stages of 12.195km (men), 10km (women), 10km (men) and 10km (women).
Canada will be represented in Antalya by veteran Canadian walk-on Evan Dunphy and rising talent Olivia Lundman, who is coached and mentored by Dunphy.
“It's really great to have a potential teammate who I also help guide along her journey. Olivia's positive potential is huge and we just need this one race,” Dunphy said.
Diving
The third and final Water Diving World Cup of the season takes place this weekend in Xi'an, China.
Kylie MacKay and Kate Miller will team up again in the women's 10m synchro, the final of which takes place on Thursday evening. The duo, who qualified for Paris 2024 on the back of their results in the World Championships last February, won a bronze medal in the second stage of the World Cup in Berlin last month. MacKay will also take part in the women's 10m fixed platform, the final of which takes place on Sunday; Elena Dick is the other Canadian competing in the individual event.
Rylan Wiens will compete in the men's 10m on Sunday, an event in which he won silver on the Berlin stage. The diver has booked his ticket to Paris 2024 in the 10m synchro alongside Nathan Zsombor-Murray, and will bid for one of two spots in the men's 10m individual at the Canadian Diving Trials, held May 17-19. .
Beach volleyball
Canadian beach volleyball players take part in the Beach Pro Tour Elite16 event in Tepic, Mexico. Brandi Wilkerson and Melissa Humana-Paredes will play in Group D of the main draw alongside teams from Mexico and Brazil.
Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes posted a strong start to the 2024 season with a silver medal at the previous Elite16 event in Doha, Qatar, in March. The Canadians fell to the Brazilian team of Bárbara Seixas and Carol Salgado, one of the teams they will face during pool play in this tournament.
Fellow Canadians Sarah Pavan and Molly McBain will play in Group B alongside teams from the United States, Spain and Italy.
On Thursday afternoon, Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes will take on Tina Bigi and Victoria Lopez of Brazil, while Pavan and McBean will face off against Liliana Fernandez and Paola Soria of Spain.
The window
After winning gold at the World Women's Curling Championship and silver at the World Men's Curling Championship, Canada begins the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship on Saturday.
Cadrianna and Colton Lott, gold medalists at recent Canadian Championships, will wear Team Canada colors at this world championships, which run until April 27 in Östersund, Sweden.
Sweden's 20 teams have been divided into two groups of 10, with Canada in Group A alongside Australia, China, South Korea, the United States, New Zealand, Scotland, the Netherlands, Sweden and the Czech Republic. The teams in each group play with each other once in the round robin, then the teams that rank first in each group qualify directly to the semi-finals, which will be held next Friday, while the teams in second and third place will qualify to compete in the qualifiers immediately before that to determine the teams. Which will get the other two places in the semi-finals. The bronze and gold medal finals will be held on Saturday, April 27.
During the first weekend of the tournament, the Canadians face New Zealand on Saturday at 8 a.m. ET, before playing the Czech Republic on Sunday at 4 a.m. ET, followed by the Netherlands at noon ET. Canada will face South Korea on Monday at 8 a.m. ET.
At the World Mixed Doubles Championships held last year in Gangneung, Canadians Jennifer Jones and Brent Ling finished fourth after losing in the bronze medal match. Since the inaugural World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship in 2008, Canada has won silver twice, in 2017 and 2019, and bronze twice, in 2009 and 2018.
Sailing
Ten Canadian sailors will head to the waters of Hyères, France this weekend to participate in the aptly named Last Chance Regatta. The regatta is the last chance for athletes to qualify for their countries' boats before the 2024 Paris Olympics.
In the ILCA 7 category, Ryan Anderson, Luke Rottenberg and Norman Struthers (Toronto, ON-RCYC) will aim to finish within the top three countries that are not already qualified, in order to claim one of the last available positions. If successful, Ruitenberg will represent Canada following the Sail Canada qualification process that concluded at the Princess Sofia Trophy Regatta.
Mac Morrin would need to finish among the top five countries that don't already qualify for Paris in men's kitesurfing to earn a spot in Canada.
In the iQFoil category, Nicola Gehrke and Cyrus Lai have pre-qualified for nomination by Sail Canada for Paris 2024. They each need to finish in the top five in the women's and men's competitions, respectively, to qualify for nomination for Paris.
The Nacra 17 teams of Jalen Richardson and Madeleine Gillies, as well as Kaspar Lenz-Andersson and Coralie Viticuk, will compete in Hyères. Richardson and Gillis hold the lead as part of the Canadian qualifying process after the first two events. To earn a place in Paris, Canada will need to finish among the top three countries that are not already qualified.
The Last Chance Regatta will be held in conjunction with the French Olympic Week, a regatta that serves as preparation for the 2024 Paris Games. Sarah Douglas and Clara Gravelli will represent Canada in the ILCA 6 class, as will Emilie Poggia, Natalia Leshko and Marie-Eve Mairan in women's kitesurfing. Douglas has qualified for the ILCA 6 nomination, and Bugeja leads the Canadian women's kitesurfing qualification process after two events.
Watch: 24 Questions with Sarah Douglas
