2022 Commonwealth Games: Summer McIntosh wins Team Canada’s first gold on Day 1

The action is underway at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.

A day after Olympic weightlifting champion Maude Charron and Paralympic wheelchair racer Josh Cassidy led Team Canada into the Opening Ceremony, the first four medals were won by Canadian athletes.

Team Canada at the 2022 Commonwealth Games

Here’s a look at some of what happened on Day 1:

Swimming

Summer McIntosh dominated the women’s 400m individual medley, winning the gold medal in 4:29.01 to break the Commonwealth Games record that had stood since 2014. It also broke her own national record.

The recently crowned world champion was so far ahead of the field that the runners-up were still making their final turn while she was almost halfway down the pool and heading home. McIntosh ended up with almost an eight-second margin of victory. There were two other Canadians in the final. Ella Jansen placed fifth in a personal best 4:40.17 while Tessa Cieplucha finished eighth.

Canada won the bronze medal in the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay, represented in the final by Javier Acevedo, Joshua Liendo, Rebecca Smith, and Maggie Mac Neil. They finished in 3:24.86 which placed them on the podium behind Australia (3:21.18) and England (3:22.45). Ruslan Gaziev, Stephan Calkins, Ella Jansen and Mary-Sophie Harvey had raced in the preliminary heats.

Joshua Liendo swam a personal best 23.51 seconds in the men’s 50m butterfly semis to advance to the final. Maggie Mac Neil, Rebecca Smith, and Katerine Savard all advanced to the final of the women’s 100m butterfly. Katrina Bellio finished seventh in the final of the women’s 200m freestyle. James Dergousoff was seventh in the men’s 200m breaststroke final.

Track Cycling

The trio of Kelsey Mitchell, Lauriane Genest, and Sarah Orban won the silver medal in the women’s team sprint for Canada’s first podium finish in Birmingham. They were second-fastest in the qualifying round, which set up a race for gold against New Zealand. In that three-lap final, the Kiwis took the lead early and went on to set a Commonwealth Games record time, beating the Canadians by about half a second.

In the men’s team sprint, the Canadian trio of Nick Wammes, Tyler Rorke and Ryan Dodyk were denied the bronze medal by New Zealand and finished fourth.

Artistic Gymnastics

The quintet of Felix Dolci, Mathys Jalbert, Chris Kaji, Jayson Rampersad and Kenji Tamane won silver in the men’s team event. Their final score of 241.200 put them on the podium between the gold medallists from England (254.550) and the bronze medallists from Cyprus (239.650).

Dolci qualified for the individual all-around final in fifth place while Tamane advanced in eighth place. Dolci also qualified for four individual apparatus finals (floor exercise, rings, vault, parallel bars). Kaji will join him in the rings final while Tamane and Rampersad will compete in the pommel horse final.

Triathlon

It was a tough day for Tyler Mislawchuk, who arrived as one of the top contenders for the men’s podium. First he was dunked in the water just after the pontoon start. Then he sustained a flat tire as he was transitioning to the bike leg. Unable to make his gears work with a replacement wheel, he was forced out of the race. Teammates Charles Paquet and Martin Sobey finished 10th and 11th, respectively. Emy Legault earned a top-10 finish in the women’s race with Dominika Jamnicky (13th) and Amelie Kretz (15th) just behind.

Commonwealth Games Medal Table after Day 1:

The 2022 Commonwealth Games will run through August 8 and feature 268 Canadian athletes competing in 18 sports and five para sports. You can stream the action live on CBC Gem, cbcsports.ca and the CBC Sports app for iOS and Android devices. Some competition will also be featured on CBC TV broadcasts on the weekends.