Tuomela and Darsigny earn bronze medals on Day 3 of Commonwealth Games

BIRMINGHAM, United Kingdom — A day after Kelsey Mitchell joked that she was "consistently silver," Canada's Olympic champion added one more.

The 28-year-old from Sherwood Park, Alta., won silver in track cycling's 500-metre time trial on Sunday, and was pleased with the result in a race she rarely contests.

"It's not a new experience for silver, but very happy with my performance," Mitchell said. "I was one of the first to go and had to wait to see how everyone did."

Kristina Clonan of Australia won the gold in a time of 33.234 seconds, edging the Canadian, who recorded a personal best 33.294.

"That was my first time having to sit and wait, it was an emotional roller-coaster," Mitchell said. "It came down to the very last rider, I knew she'd be fast and it would be close. It was fun, that's sport for you. I loved it."

Mitchell, who captured gold in the sprint at the Tokyo Olympics, won silver in that event in Birmingham, plus silver in the sprint team event with Sarah Orban and Lauriane Genest.

Kylie Masse continued the Canadian swim team's parade to the podium, winning silver in the 100-metre backstroke. The 26-year-old from Windsor, Ont., touched the wall in 58.73 seconds, edged out for gold by Kaylee McKeown of Australia (58.60).

"Every time I race Kaylee I know it's going to be tough," said Masse, the defending champion from 2018 and two-time world champion. "We really push each other and I put out everything I had tonight.

And Canada's 4x200 freestyle relay of Summer McIntosh, Ella Jansen, Mary-Sophie Harvey and Katerine Savard won silver in seven minutes, 51.98 seconds. Australia captured gold in a world-record 7:39.29.

"I'm really proud with what we accomplished," said the 15-year-old McIntosh. "I wasn't as happy with my personal time, I think I could have changed a few things. We got the silver and that was probably all we could do tonight."

Canadian siblings Tali and Shad Darsigny of Sainte-Hyacinthe, Que., earned a pair of matching bronze medals in weightlifting.

Tali Darsigny was third in the women's 59-kilogram class.

"I'm super happy about my bronze. My goal here was to medal," Darsigny said. "Post-Olympics, it's been really hard, and I had a lack of motivation coming back from the Tokyo Olympics, it was a longer Olympic cycle with the five years instead of four. So, I had a little down time and . . . it was harder, but I think I'm on my way up now."

Shad Darsigny claimed bronze in the men's 73 kilograms, despite hurting his arm during a snatch.

"It's the first time in a year-and-half that I lifted in the 73 kilos again, because I was in 81, I lost seven kilos to go down to 73," Darsigny said. "So yeah, I'm pretty happy. I was expecting a bit a bit more but with my room and everything, I'm happy."

Jessica Tuomela of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., and her guide Emma Skaug captured bronze in the Para triathlon, Canada's first-ever medal in the event.

Tuomela, a former Paralympic swimmer who took up triathlons nine years ago, raced to a time of 1:15.12 with Skaug.

"We executed all three disciplines the way we wanted to," Tuomela said. "The goal was to go out, be steady and get in a rhythm and stay there," said Tuomela.

Emma Spence of Cambridge, Ont., won bronze in the women's individual all-around gymnastics final.

"It was just so amazing," Spence said of the crowd. "The energy and the atmosphere during the competition was just crazy. And it helped me so much."

Their medals bring Canada's total to 18. The Canadian team is aiming for a top-three finish on the medal table at the Games, which close on Aug. 8.

Canada picked up a pair of victories at beach volleyball.

Sarah Pavan of Kitchener, Ont., and Melissa Humana-Paredes of Toronto, the 2019 world champions, recorded a decisive 2-0 (21-7, 21-6) victory over Juliana Otcherewaa and Rashaka Katadat of Ghana.

"We’re just taking it one game at a time ... we took care of our side and took advantage of the opportunities that we had," Pavan said. "Obviously, the competition will get progressively more difficult so we’re going to have to continue to focus on our side-out and our serving."

Toronto's Dan Dearing and Sam Schachter of Richmond Hill, Ont., followed suit, beating Sri Lanka's Malintha Yapa and Ashen Rashmika 2-0 (21-13, 21-12).

"It was definitely good to get out there and get a feel for centre court," Schachter said. "I think we did our job and worked on some of the stuff that we wanted to work on . . . from a team-process point of view for the whole tournament, it was good. The competition is only going to get harder from now on.”

The Canadian women's wheelchair basketball team beat England 13-8 to conclude pool play.

Tamara Steeves had a game-high seven points.

"I got open because my teammates got me open," said Steeves. "They were double-teaming Kady Dandeneau early, which set me up for high-percentage shots on my layups. I was mostly consistent on my layups today, so I think that worked in our favour, and we came out with the win."

Dandeneau added five points and nine rebounds.

The semifinals are Monday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 31, 2022.