More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Canada is heading home from the women's beach volleyball tournament at the Tokyo Olympics empty-handed.
Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes lost in three sets to Australia's Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy in Tuesday's quarterfinals immediately after teammates Heather Bansley and Brandie Wilkerson suffered the same fate against Latvia's Tina Graudina and Anastasija Kravcenoka.
Pavan and Humana-Paredes -- the sport's reining world champions -- hadn't trailed at all in the event, but dropped the opening set 21-15 against the Australians.
They battled back to take the second 21-19 before falling 15-12 in the third at a windy Shinokaze Park.
Bansley and Wilkerson, meanwhile, lost 13-21, 21-18, 11-15 thanks in large part to 13 serve errors compared to the Latvians' eight.
Canada had two shots at getting into the semifinals and would have been guaranteed a spot in the gold-medal game if both squads advanced.
Instead, the program will remain with a solitary bronze won by the men when beach volleyball was first introduced as an Olympic sport at the 1996 Games in Atlanta.
"It definitely stings," said Wilkerson, a 29-year-old from Toronto. "It definitely hurts.
"We know we have what it takes, so to not have that manifest on the court is tough to deal with emotionally."
Bansley said playing in front of empty stands because of COVID-19 restrictions was a challenge.
"It was trying to find the balance of bringing our own energy and managing the empty stadium," said the 33-year-old from Waterdown, Ont. "We love playing in (front of) a crowd and love that energy, even if they're not cheering for you ...you still feel it. We missed that. We missed that a lot, the whole game, but it is what it is.
"The other teams were dealing with the same thing."
April Ross and Alix Klineman of the United States defeated Germany's Laura Ludwig and Margareta Kozuch 21-19, 21-19 in the day's first quarterfinal before Switzerland's Anouk Verge-Depre and Joana Heidrich topped Brazil's Ana Patricia Silva Ramos and Rebecca Silva 21-19, 18-21, 15-12.
The Americans and Swiss will play in Thursday's semifinals at the venue overlooking Tokyo Bay, while the Latvians and Australians will go at it for the other spot in the gold-medal showdown.
Bansley and Pavan were partners earlier in their careers, but a four-year run ended after a loss at the same stage of the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Pavan and Humana-Parades, who was Canada's alternate in Brazil five years ago, are ranked second in the world by the sport's governing body, while Bansley and Wilkerson are tied for 15th.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 3, 2021.
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
An orca whale calf that has been stranded in a B.C. lagoon for weeks after her pregnant mother died swam out on her own early Friday morning.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
An Ontario man who took out a loan to pay for auto repairs said his car was repossessed after he missed two payments.
Devastating tornadoes tore across parts of eastern Nebraska and northeast Texas Friday as a multi-day severe thunderstorm event ramped up in the central United States, injuring at least three people.
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
Donald Trump's defence team attacked the credibility Friday of the prosecution's first witness in his hush money case, seeking to discredit testimony detailing a scheme between Trump and a tabloid to bury negative stories to protect the Republican's 2016 presidential campaign.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.