Canada adds top finishes in athletics; wraps up archery, badminton at FISU Games
Team Canada continued its strong showing at the 2025 FISU Summer World University Games on Thursday, posting two top-nine finishes and three new finals qualifications in athletics, while the country’s archery competition came to a close and Canadian badminton athletes reached the round of 16 across all three draws. The women’s artistic gymnastics team also earned an eighth-place finish in Thursday’s team final.
Archery
Jyotsna Challa (Halifax, N.S. / Dalhousie) and Trevor Hoy (Norwood, Ont. / Trent) won their mixed compound team 1/12 elimination round 145-144 over Mexico on Thursday before being eliminated 159-146 by Korea. This wrapped up competition for the archery team at Rhine-Ruhr.
Artistic Gymnastics
Canada’s women’s artistic gymnastics team placed eighth overall in the team final at the 2025 FISU Summer World University Games on Thursday with a combined score of 148.000.
Competing in the afternoon session, the Canadian trio of Virginie Therrien (Montréal, Que. / CÉGEP André-Laurendeau), Evandra Zlobec (Montréal, Que. / Collégial International Sainte-Anne), and Maddison Hajjar (Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Que. / John Abbot College) briefly sat in third before results from the evening group pushed them out of podium contention.
Canada’s strongest performance came on the floor exercise, where they finished second overall with a score of 37.750.
Hajjar and Zlobec advanced to Friday’s all-around final, while Therrien will compete in the vault final on Saturday. Zlobec also earned a berth in Saturday’s floor exercise final.
Athletics
Canada’s track and field team posted two top-nine finishes and added three more finals qualifiers on Thursday at the 2025 FISU Games.
Jonathan Podbielski (Regina, Sask. / Regina) placed seventh in the men’s 1500m final with a time of 3:47.50, holding with the lead pack until the final stretch. High jumper Aidan Grout (Maple Ridge, B.C. / Toronto) finished ninth, clearing 2.13m before narrowly missing 2.17m on his second attempt.
In the morning session, Elise Coates (Nanaimo, B.C. / Victoria) and Thomas Laviolette (Mascouche, Que. / Montréal) both advanced to the 5,000m finals, with Laviolette finishing second overall in his heat in 14:08.34. Ashley Maguire (LaSalle, Ont. / Western) and William Boyle (Winnipeg, Man. / UNB) also competed in the event.
Rachel Grenke (Edmonton, Alta. / Alberta) cruised into the women’s pole vault final after clearing 4.20m, while teammate April Kippers (St. Albert, Alta. / Alberta) recorded a personal best of 3.70m.
Canada’s 4x400m mixed relay team finished ninth overall in 3:25.29, narrowly missing the final. Nike Abiodun (Waterloo, Ont. / Guelph) and Tyra Boug (Kitchener, Ont. / Western) ran 13.53 and 13.52 in the women’s 100m hurdles.
Robin Selkirk (Whitby, Ont. / Western) completed the heptathlon with a season’s best 800m (2:27.32) and finished strong in long jump (5.38m) and javelin (30.82m).
In the women’s 200m semifinals, Georgia Oland (Calgary, Alta. / Calgary) clocked 24.16 seconds to place fifth in her heat.
Badminton
Canada’s badminton team saw a mix of victories and close defeats Thursday at the 2025 FISU Games, with strong performances from several athletes in the round of 32 before falling in the round of 16.
In mixed doubles, Chloe Hoang (Markham, Ont. / Ontario Tech) and Timothy Lock (Markham, Ont. / Humber) opened the day with a 2-0 win over Austria in their round of 32 match. The duo later fell in straight sets to Germany in the round of 16.
Hoang also advanced in women’s singles, defeating Japan’s Yuka Kobayashi 2-0 in the round of 32 before being edged 2-1 by Ukraine’s Maria Stoliarenko in a tightly contested round of 16 battle.
In other women’s singles action, Eliana Zhang (Montreal, Que. / McGill) was eliminated in the round of 32 following a 2-0 loss to Hong Kong’s Mehta Saloni Samirbhai.
On the men’s side, Lock dropped a 2-1 decision to China’s Zhou Xin Yu in round of 32 singles play, while Victor Lai (Scarborough, Ont. / York) earned a straight-sets win over Egypt’s Kareem Ezzat to move on. Lai’s tournament came to an end in the round of 16 with a 2-0 loss to TING Yen-Chen of Chinese Taipei.