Weekend recap: Corey Conners grabs Olympic golf spot
A look at the top performances by Canadian athletes on the world stage
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The chase for Canada's Olympic men's golf entries came down to the wire while the Canadian women's volleyball team battled for a spot in Paris and a tennis star returned to contention. Here's how Canadian athletes fared on the international stage over the weekend:
Corey Conners grabbed an Olympic golf spot on a dramatic final day at the U.S. Open.
The 124th U.S. Open will be remembered as the one that Rory McIlroy gave away. Seeking his first major championship in a decade, the Northern Irishman took a two-stroke lead to the 14th tee on Sunday before missing two short putts on Pinehurst's tricky greens to allow American Bryson DeChambeau to steal the title with a clutch up-and-down from a bunker on 18. It's the second major trophy for the quirky DeChambeau, who won the U.S. Open in 2020 before defecting to LIV Golf. McIlroy remains painfully stuck on four majors.
Along with the main drama, an exciting chase for Canada's two Olympic men's golf spots played out at the final event in the qualifying window. Heading into the U.S. Open, those belonged to childhood pals Nick Taylor (ranked 32nd) and Adam Hadwin (35th) on the strength of their world rankings, which are the measuring stick for Olympic berths. But they both missed the cut, opening the door for the 46th-ranked Conners to steal a spot in Paris with a solo 11th-place finish or better. No. 65 Taylor Pendrith even had a chance if he finished in the top three.
WATCH | Conners captures Canada's 2nd Olympic spot:
Conners did it, finishing in a tie for ninth to climb to 37th in the rankings — one spot ahead of Hadwin — and earn his second straight Olympic berth (he finished 13th in 2021). Despite the missed cut, Taylor will go to the Olympics for the first time after falling three spots to No. 35. Pendrith moved up to 56th after tying for 16th place on Sunday.
"I guess it all worked out not knowing," Conners said on a conference call Monday afternoon. "I felt like it would have been added pressure and another distraction. I had no idea all Sunday what position I was in. I just thought a par would get me a good finish."
Despite his heartbreaking loss, McIlroy will get an Olympic invite as the No. 2-ranked player in the world. DeChambeau, despite climbing to No. 10, missed out on qualifying for the loaded U.S. team. The Americans are allowed four Olympic entries because of their abundance of highly ranked players, and those will be offered to world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, No. 3 Xander Schauffele (the Tokyo 2020 gold medallist), No. 5 Wyndham Clark and No. 7 Collin Morikawa. In the event of a withdrawal, No. 8 Patrick Cantlay would be in line before DeChambeau.
The women's Olympic qualifying period ends with this week's Women's PGA Championship. Canada's Brooke Henderson is a lock for Paris at No. 13 in the world rankings after tying for 34th place at the Meijer LPGA Classic on Sunday. Alena Sharpe, ranked 274th, is also on track to make the Canadian Olympic team.
The Canadian women's volleyball team fell short of the Olympics.
In order to qualify for their first Olympic Games since 1996, Canada needed to overtake the Netherlands in the world rankings at the conclusion of the Nations League preliminary round on Sunday. But a straight-sets loss to the Dutch on Friday in Japan all but sealed the 10th-ranked Canadians' Olympic fate, and Saturday's closing win over France wasn't enough to change that or send Canada to the Nations League quarterfinals with a 7-5 record on the season.
The Olympics-bound Canadian men's volleyball team is ranked 12th in the world and takes a 4-4 record into the final week of its Nations League preliminary stage in the Philippines. Canada faces third-ranked Japan on Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. ET on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.
Canada missed a chance to face India at cricket's T20 World Cup.
With the T20 (shorter) brand of cricket set to join the Olympic program in 2028, a date with the world's top-ranked team on Saturday in Miami looked like a great opportunity for the 23rd-ranked Canadians to see how they measure up. But the match was washed out by rain, bringing the already-eliminated Canadians' first World Cup appearance to a close.
Canada finished fourth in its five-team group with a 1-2 record, sandwiching a win over last-place Ireland (0-3) between losses to the co-host United States (2-1) and Pakistan (2-2). India (3-0) and the surprising Americans advanced to the Super 8 round, knocking out seventh-ranked Pakistan.
The rest of the tournament takes place in the West Indies, beginning with the first Super 8 matches on Wednesday.
Bianca Andreescu nearly won her first title since the 2019 U.S. Open.
Playing in just her second tournament since missing nearly 10 months with a back injury, Andreescu lost the Liberma Open women's final 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 to Russia's Liudmila Samsonova, the 15th-ranked player in the world. The 163rd-ranked Andreescu defeated four-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka in the quarterfinals of the Dutch grass-court tournament.
Meanwhile, Canada's Gabriela Dabrowski and her New Zealander teammate Erin Routliffe won the women's doubles title on the Nottingham Open turf on Sunday. And Canada's grass-court success continued today as Milos Raonic fired 47 aces — an ATP record for a three-set match — during a win over Britain's Cameron Norrie in the first round of the Queen's Club Championships.
Other key results:
* Olympic women's shot put medal contender Sarah Mitton placed second at the Harry Jerome Track Classic in Burnaby, B.C. The world No. 2 lost by 18 centimetres to sixth-ranked Danniel Thomas-Dodd of Jamaica, who Mitton defeated two days earlier at the Edmonton Athletics Invitational for her second consecutive win. On Tuesday, Andre De Grasse and women's hammer throw world champion Camryn Rogers headline Canada's entries for the Paavo Nurmi Games in Finland. Watch live at 11:30 a.m. ET on CBC Sports' digital platforms.
* Half of Canada's Olympics-bound women's 3-on-3 basketball team helped claim silver at a FIBA Women's Series event in France. Katherine Plouffe and Paige Crozon, who normally play with Michelle Plouffe (Katherine's twin sister) and Kacie Bosch on the top-ranked Canadian squad, teamed with Cassandra Brown and Mackenzie Smith to reach the tournament final, where they lost 21-12 to the host team.
* Teenage mountain biker Isabella Holmgren won the women's under-23 cross-country race at a World Cup stop in Italy. Holmgren, 19, won another U23 race last month in the Czech Republic and is expected to receive Canada's only Olympic women's mountain bike entry when the cycling team for Paris is announced.
With files from The Associated Press
