Canada's Brittany Crew captures shot put gold at Summer Universiade

Canada's Brittany Crew makes an attempt in the women's shot put final during the World Athletics Championships in London Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2017. (Matt Dunham/AP Photo)

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Brittany Crew won the shot put on Sunday for Canada's fourth gold medal at the Summer Universiade.

The 23-year-old from York University threw 18.34 metres, just shy of her own Canadian record of 18.47.

"I knew that I had a really good chance of winning this event and I knew that I had to get a really good throw out in the beginning (and) kind of shut down some girls," said Crew, who opened with throws of 17.74 and 18.00. "This is my biggest medal I've got on the world stage so far. I'm super proud of myself and I'm really happy my coach (Richard Parkinson) got to be here to experience it with me.

"I can't express the feelings I'm having right now."

Crew won bronze at the 2015 Universiade. She made history earlier this month when she became the first Canadian woman to throw in the finals of the world track and field championships -- she finished sixth. Parkinson was quarantined in the Canadian team's London hotel with a stomach virus that night, and had to coach her via video stream.

Jessica O'Connell raced to a silver medal in the women's 5,000 metres. Heading into the bell lap, O'Connell was in a pack of four front-runners and a strong final 400 metres propelled her onto the podium. Germany's Hanna Klein took the gold, while Jessica Judd of Great Britain won bronze.

"I knew there were two other very strong runners and it started out pretty slow so we were all controlled but I knew these two girls would pick it up near the end," O'Connell said. "I knew I had to keep contact and when they went I had to go with them and that's exactly what happened."

Dallyssa Huggins finished sixth in the heptathlon, while Nicole Oudenaarden was 11th. Sekou Kaba was seventh in the 110-metre hurdles, while Deryk Theodore cleared 5.10 metres to take 10th in pole vault. John Gay was 11th in the 3,000 steeplechase, while Sarah Mitton was 10th in women's shot put.

Canadian divers Celina Toth and Tyler Henschel won silver in the mixed team event. Ukraine claimed gold, while Germany won bronze. Henschel competed just half an hour after finishing ninth in the men's platform final.

"(The team event) wasn't even on my mind because the individual event is a little more stressful and focused on me," said Henschel. "After that I had a break . . . and that's the only time I actually went 'OK, we are going to compete."'

Canada's men's basketball team defeated Taiwan 98-61, and will play for ninth place on Monday. Carleton's Kaza Kajami-Keane scored a game-high 25 points.

Sandro Rajkovic scored both goals in Canada's 2-1 men's soccer victory over South Africa. The Canadians will play Brazil for ninth on Sunday.

Canada's men's volleyball team won its first classification game beating Romania 3-2 (20-25, 25-16, 18-25, 26-24, 15-13). UBC's Irvan Brar had 13 kills, 12 digs and six blocks. Canada faces France on Monday in a 9th-12 place classification match.

In women's women's volleyball, Canada finished 13th after beating Latvia 3-0.

Canada's men's water polo team advanced to the 9th-place game with a 9-4 win over South Korea. The Canadians will play the U.S. on Tuesday.