Canada’s Tess Routliffe swam to Paralympic bronze in the women’s 100-metre breaststroke SB7 final on Thursday at Paris La Défense Arena.
The reigning world champion from Caledon, Ont., touched the wall in a time of one minute 31.58 seconds for her second medal of the Paris Paralympics.
“It was a good race. I get in the water and I just want to race the person next to me. That’s exactly what I did. I put my heart into that race and I am happy to be on the podium again,” Routliffe said.
The 25-year-old won silver in the 200m individual medley in Paris before finishing eighth in the 100m freestyle.
“Getting on that podium is huge. We’ve been working on that race a lot. Those girls are quick. Just got to get out and race them.”
WATCH l Routliffe wins breaststroke bronze in Paris:
Tess Routliffe of Caledon, Ont., swam to bronze in the women’s 100m breaststroke SB7 event, to go with her silver medal from last week.
Neutral Paralympic athlete Mariia Pavlova won the gold medal in a world-record time of 1:26.09 and Great Britain’s Iona Winnifrith beat Routliffe for silver (1:29.69).
Routliffe’s professional tennis playing sister, Erin, flew in to cheer Routliffe on from the stands after competing in the women’s doubles quarterfinals earlier this week alongside Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski.
Routliffe and her older sister were born in Auckland, New Zealand, while her parents were travelling around the world before moving back to Canada.
Muskoka, Ont., native Mary Jibb finished seventh in the women’s 200m individual medley SM9 final later on Thursday with a time of 2:41.70.
Katarina Roxon of Kippens, N.L., failed to qualify for the medal race after posting the 13th-fastest qualifying mark.
Canada’s Levine, Ciobanu fall short of boccia bronze
The first Canadian medal opportunity of the day saw the boccia duo of Alison Levine and Iulian Ciobanu suffered a 6-1 loss to Thailand in the mixed pairs BC4 bronze-medal match.
Nuanchan Phonsila and Pornchok Larpyen scored in all four ends with pinpoint accuracy, including three points in the third, to deny the second-ranked Canadians a spot on the podium at South Paris Arena.
Levine and Ciobanu, both competing in their third Paralympics, are the reigning Parapan American Games champion pairing in the event.
Montreal’s Levine finished fifth in the individual women’s tournament in Paris. The 34-year-old is a four-time Parapan Am Games medallist, including an individual gold medal last November.
Colombia will face Hong Kong for the mixed pairs gold medal at 1:15 p.m. ET.
Gagné loses bronze-medal bout
Canada’s Priscilla Gagné came up short on her quest for a second career Paralympic judo medal.
The blind judoka from Sarnia, Ont., lost her bronze-medal match in golden score overtime on Thursday after receiving her third shido penalty against Argentina’s Paula Karina Gomez.
Gagné was penalized twice for non-combativity before a false attack penalty gave Gomez an 11-1 win, ending the grueling match that lasted nearly ten minutes at Champ-de-Mars Arena.
Gagné opened the day with a 10-0 quarterfinal win over Larissa Oliveira, defeating the Brazilian by ippon in just over a minute with a Okuri-eri-jime choke.
But the 38-year-old Gagné was beaten by the same margin in the semifinals, as world No. 1 Shi Yijie of China executed back-to-back seoi-nage throws for two waza-ari scores.
Two bronze medals are awarded in each weight class, with the semifinal losers squaring off against the winners from the repechage round.
Gagné, a three-time Paralympian, won silver in the women’s 52kg division at the Tokyo Games in 2021. She is currently ranked fourth in the world.
Other Canadian results:
- Charles Moreau of Victoriaville, Que., did not finish in the men’s H3 road race following a crash.