 | The Buzzer is off tomorrow, so we're taking an early look ahead to a big track and field meet and other events involving Canadian athletes this weekend. Plus, Carolina signs the best remaining NHL free agent, Canada is out of singles players at Wimbledon, and the Blue Jays are in first place. | | | Canada's Olympic hammer throw champs take aim at a Diamond League jewel
| | | The lone North American stop on track and field's global Diamond League tour takes place Saturday in Eugene, Ore., where several Olympic champions will compete in the 50th edition of the prestigious Prefontaine Classic at historic Hayward Field.
The list includes Canadian hammer throwers Ethan Katzberg and Camryn Rogers, who both won Olympic gold last summer in Paris after capturing their respective world titles in 2023. Katzberg is unbeaten in five starts this year, while Rogers has four victories and a second-place finish.
Rogers' competition features a couple of strong American challengers. Brooke Andersen won gold at the 2022 world championships at Hayward Field (Rogers took silver) and owns the best throw of this year, while Annette Echikunwoke was the runner-up at the Paris Olympics. Katzberg's opponents include 2020 Olympic champ Wojciech Nowicki of Poland, Paris bronze medallist Mykhaylo Kokhan of Ukraine and fellow Canadian Rowan Hamilton, the Katzberg lookalike who placed ninth in Paris.
Also competing for Canada at the Pre Classic is shot putter Sarah Mitton, who rebounded from her disappointing 12th-place finish at the Paris Olympics to capture her second straight indoor world title earlier this year. Mitton failed to crack the top three in both of her Diamond League starts so far this season before winning a smaller event last month in Guelph, Ont., with her first 20-metre-plus throw since the indoor worlds.
The only Canadians on the track Saturday are a pair of Para athletes. Sprinter Marissa Papaconstantinou will race the women's mixed-classification 100m while Nandini Sharma runs the women's 800m T54.
International stars in action include Olympic champions Mondo Duplantis of Sweden (men's pole vault), Julien Alfred of Saint Lucia (women's 100m) and Letsile Tebogo of Botswana (men's 200m). Tebogo will face two-time Olympic silver medallist Kenny Bednarek of the United States, who went undefeated on the Grand Slam Track circuit this season, while Alfred takes on Olympic runner-up Sha'Carri Richardson of the U.S.
The men's 100m is headlined by Olympic silver medallist Kishane Thompson of Jamaica, while back-to-back Olympic women's 400m hurdles champ Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone of the U.S. is set to run the flat 400m. The prestigious Bowerman Mile features American Cole Hocker, the reigning Olympic 1,500m champion.
You can watch the Prefontaine Classic live Saturday from 4-6 p.m. ET on CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem. Here's the full schedule and startlists.
For more on the top events, read this preview by CBC Sports' Justin Piercy and watch the latest episode of Trackside with Perdita Felicien and Aaron Brown.
Other Canadians to watch this weekend in international sports:
* The Canadian women's basketball team is into the elimination rounds of the AmeriCup, the championship tournament for North, Central and South America. Ranked seventh in the world, Canada went 3-1 to finish second in Group A. It will now face No. 30 Columbia, the third-place team in Group B, in the quarterfinals on Friday in Chile. The winner will likely meet the top-ranked United States in the semifinals on Saturday. The final is Sunday. The tournament winner gets a spot in next year's Women's Basketball World Cup, which will serve as a qualifier for the 2028 Olympics.
* The second-ranked Canadian women's rugby team is in South Africa for a pair of matches against the 12th-ranked Springboks. They'll play this Saturday and again on July 12 as Canada prepares for the Women's Rugby World Cup, starting in late August.
* The Tour de France begins Saturday with Canadians Mike Woods and Guillaume Boivin riding for the Israel-Premier Tech team. Derek Gee, who finished ninth in his Tour de France debut last year, is sitting this one out after placing fourth in the Giro d'Italia.
* Olympic beach volleyball silver medallists Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson are competing in a Pro Tour Elite16 event in Switzerland, where they won their first two matches today. The women's and men's tournaments run through Sunday, and you can watch them live on CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem. Here's the full schedule and results. | | |  | Ethan Katzberg became Canada's first-ever Olympic hammer throw champion last summer in Paris. (Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images)
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| | | Some other things to know:
1. Nikolaj Ehlers signed with Carolina.
Following a few days of indecision, the best player remaining on the NHL's free-agent market inked a six-year, $51-million US deal with the Hurricanes today after spending his first 10 seasons with the Winnipeg Jets. Ehlers, 29, scored 24 goals in 69 games last season to help Winnipeg win the Presidents' Trophy.
"He's a highly-skilled winger who can really skate and will fit very well with our forward group,' said Hurricanes GM Eric Tulsky. Here's more on the move.
2. Canada has no singles players left at Wimbledon.
After 29th-seeded Leylah Fernandez and main-draw debutant Gabriel Diallo lost in the second round yesterday (the latter in a tough five-setter against fifth-seeded American Taylor Fritz), the last two Canadians were eliminated today as No. 25 Felix Auger-Aliassime and unseeded teenager Victoria Mboko failed to reach the third round as well.
Auger-Aliassime's match against Jan-Lennard Struf was suspended due to darkness yesterday and ended today with a four-set victory for the 125th-ranked German. The 18-year-old Mboko fell in straight sets — 7-6 (6), 6-3 — against unseeded American Hailey Baptiste after upsetting No. 25 Magdalena Frech of Poland in the opening round. Mboko, who lost in the final round of qualifying, was a late addition to the women's draw as a "lucky loser" after another player withdrew.
Canada's Gabriela Dabrowski and her teammate Erin Routliffe of New Zealand, seeded No. 2 in women's doubles, are still alive after winning their opener yesterday in straight sets. Here's more on today's Wimbledon action.
3. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was voted an All-Star starter.
The Toronto Blue Jays slugger will play in his fifth consecutive All-Star Game after beating out the Yankees' Paul Goldschmidt in a fan vote for the American League's starting first base spot at the July 15 showcase in Atlanta. Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk was also a finalist to start but lost out to Seattle's Cal Raleigh, who leads all of Major League Baseball with 33 home runs. Kirk (and other Jays) could still get on the team as reserves.
Guerrero, who signed a 14-year, $500-million US extension with Toronto this spring, has a modest 12 homers and 44 RBIs in 85 games after hitting 30 dingers and driving in 103 runs in 159 games last year. But the Blue Jays are much better this season: they moved into a tie for first in the AL East last night with their third straight win over the visiting Yankees and can overtake them by sweeping the series tonight.
In other baseball news, the Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw became the 20th pitcher ever to reach 3,000 strikeouts and just the fourth left-hander.
4. Soccer's Gold Cup final is set.
Either the United States or Mexico will win the Concacaf men's championship for the 13th consecutive time after the host Americans defeated Guatemala 2-1 and Mexico blanked Honduras 1-0 in last night's semifinals. They'll play for the title on Sunday night in Houston.
In women's international soccer, the top-ranked U.S. dominated Canada for an easy 3-0 win in their friendly last night in Washington, D.C. The Women's Euro championship is into its second day in Switzerland, where Italy beat Belgium 1-0 today and World Cup champion Spain faces Portugal this afternoon.
In other soccer news, Liverpool and Portuguese national team forward Diogo Jota and his brother were killed in a car crash in Spain last night. Jota, 28, scored six goals this season to help Liverpool capture the Premier League title. | | | That's it for today. Talk to you later.
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