Canada’s Rivard swims to second medal of Paralympics, a silver in 200 IM

RIO DE JANERIO, Brazil — Canadian swimmer Aurelie Rivard added to her Paralympic medal collection on Sunday, capturing silver in the women’s 200-metre individual medley.

The 20-year-old from Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., had claimed Canada’s first gold medal of the Games two nights earlier, winning the 50 freestyle in a world record time.

Rivard, who was born with an underdeveloped left hand, touched the wall in a Canadian record time of two minutes 30.03 seconds on Sunday night, to finish behind New Zealand’s Sophie Pascal. Pascal won in a world record 2:24.90.

“I’m happy with my race,” said Rivard.

“I broke the Canadian record, that was my goal. I got my silver medal back. I’m really happy with the result.”

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Paralympic veteran Benoit Huot narrowly missed adding a second swim medal on the night, finishing fourth in the 200 I.M.

Huot won the gold medal in the event four years ago in London in a world record time.

Canada won four medals on the fourth day of competition in Rio.

At the track, Canadian wheelchair racer Brent Lakatos captured a silver medal in the 400 metres for his second medal of the Games. Liam Stanley added a second medal on the morning for the Canadian track team, racing to silver in the 1,500 metres.

In rowing, Canada won bronze in the LTA mixed coxed four. Britain won gold in 3:17.17, the U.S. was second in 3:19.61 and the Canadians with Victoria Nolan, Meghan Montgomery, Andrew Todd, Curtis Halladay and coxswain Kristen Kit followed in 3:19.90.

“We came back on the U.S. in a big way,” said Montgomery, 34, who has a disability in her right hand. “We got from the stern to just being a bow ball away from silver. It was a good race.”

Montgomery is a three-time Paralympian who retired after the London Games but made a comeback in 2015.

“This year was about fighting to get back into the boat,” she said. “That was a big part of us doing so well today. We had a competitive environment in the boat.”

In table tennis, Stephanie Chan of Richmond B.C., lost to Kelly Van Zon of the Netherlands, 11-7, 12-10, 11-1 in women’s class 7 semifinal action. Chan will play in the bronze-medal match Tuesday against Seong-Ok Kim of South Korea.

In women’s goalball, Charlottetown’s Amy Burk scored twice to lead Canada to a 3-2 victory over Ukraine. The Canadians even their record at 1-1.

“You get that one goal ahead and sometimes it can add a little more pressure on you because you have to make sure you make no mistakes,” said Burk. “It was that little bit of relief and then you know, we need to buckle down, we need to be solid, we need to stop every ball.”

Canada fell in four sets to the Netherlands (22-25, 25-22, 25-17, 25-22) to remain winless after two matches in women’s sitting volleyball. Felicia Voss-Shafiq of Burnaby, B.C. had seven aces.

Austin Smeenk of Oakville, Ont., made the best of his Paralympic Games debut finishing second in heat one of the T34 wheelchair 100-metres and has qualified for Monday’s final.

In wheelchair basketball, the Canadian women (2-1) lost their first game after opening with two victories. They fell to Germany 68-54 despite a 23-point effort by Cindy Ouellet. Meanwhile, the Canadian men dropped to 0-4 after a 76-45 loss to Japan. Canadian flag bearer from the opening ceremony David Eng scored 18 points.

Canada has 12 medals — three gold, six silver and two bronze — so far in Rio. China leads the way with 92 medals, including 39 gold.

The Canadian Press