 Before we send you into the weekend with some Canadians to watch, a few programming notes.
The Buzzer is off next week. I'll also be off for the week of July 28, but I'm happy to welcome back Myles Dichter, who has written for this newsletter many times before. Myles will be filling in for me that week to cover the swimming world championships and Summer McIntosh's quest for five gold medals.
So, stay tuned for that, and I'll see you in August! | | | What to watch this weekend in international sports
| | | Here's some stuff for Canadian fans to follow:
Track and field: Diamond League rematches
Last week's Diamond League meet in Monaco featured one of the most stacked fields imaginable in the men's 800 metres. Canada's Marco Arop, the reigning world champion and silver medallist at last year's Olympics, faced off with Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya and Olympic bronze medallist Djamel Sedjati of Algeria in a race featuring all eight men from the Paris final.
Arop was unable to meet the challenge, falling so far behind the leaders on the first lap that he couldn't catch up after making his move at the bell. The big Canadian finished a disappointing fifth as Wanyonyi scored a decisive victory in 1:41.44 — the fastest time in the world this year. Sedjati was third, behind indoor world champion Josh Hoey of the United States.
Arop will get another crack at Wanyonyi at Saturday's Diamond League meet in London. Fifth-ranked Bryce Hoppel of the United States and No. 6 Mohamed Attaoui of Spain will line up too.
The London card also features a rematch between Olympic 100m champion Noah Lyles of the United States and Olympic 200m champ Letsile Tebogo of Botswana. Last week in Monaco, Lyles defeated Tebobo to win the 200 in the American's first big-time race of the year. They'll meet again Saturday in Lyles' 100m season debut.
Olympic women's 100m champion Julien Alfred of Saint Lucia will make her first Diamond League 200m appearance of the season after winning the 100 last week in Monaco; Dutch 400m hurdles star Femke Bol, also a winner last week, tries for her fourth Diamond League victory of the season; and Olympic marathon gold medallist Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands will race the mile against 10,000m world champ Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia.
Watch the London Diamond League meet live Saturday from 9-11 a.m. ET on CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem. The men's 800m is at 9:15 a.m. ET and the men's 100 at 10:27 a.m. ET. Here's the full schedule and startlists.
For more on the London meet's best matchups, watch the latest episode of Trackside with Perdita Felicien and Aaron Brown.
World Aquatics Championships: Waiting for Summer
The Canadian men's water polo team was eliminated from medal contention today with a 22-10 loss to Montenegro in the first round of the playoffs in Singapore. Canada, ranked 13th in the world, will face No. 14 Romania in the 9th-12th place bracket on Sunday.
Both of Canada's open water swimmers had better showings today as Eric Brown finished 13th in the men's 5km race while Emma Finlin placed 19th in the women's. They were 21st and 26th, respectively, in the 10K on Wednesday. Brown and Finlin will compete in the 3K knockout sprints, beginning tonight in Canadian time zones.
In artistic swimming, Canada's Audrey Lamothe qualified for the women's solo technical final on Saturday after placing 11th in the preliminary round. Lamothe and Ximena Ortiz advanced to Monday's duet technical final by finishing ninth in qualifying.
Diving and high diving get going next week. Canada's Molly Carlson is just a few weeks removed from a terrifying slip off a 22-metre outdoor platform in Italy.
We're still eight days away from the start of pool swimming, where Canada's Summer McIntosh will try to match a Michael Phelps record by winning five individual gold medals. McIntosh is expected to square off with American star Katie Ledecky in two finals: the women's 400m freestyle on July 27 and the 800m freestyle on Aug. 2. If you missed yesterday's newsletter, here's a look at these highly anticipated showdowns.
Live streaming of the World Aquatics Championships continues this weekend on CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem, with additional coverage on the CBC TV network. Here's the full competition schedule and results.
Golf: Canadians struggling at the British Open
At our publish time, it appeared that only one of the four Canadians competing in the final men's major of the season would qualify for the weekend at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland. Corey Conners finished his second round at 1 over par — right on the projected cut line — while Nick Taylor (+3), Taylor Pendrith (+3) and Mackenzie Hughes (+7) looked cooked.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler of the United States fired a 7-under today to surge into the lead at 10 under for the tournament. The two-time Masters champion is seeking his first Claret Jug after winning the PGA Championship in May for his third major title.
England's Matt Fitzpatrick, the 2022 U.S. Open champion, was one shot behind Scheffler while 2023 British Open winner Brian Harman of the U.S. and China's Haotong Li, ranked 111th the world, were two off the lead.
World No. 2 Rory McIlroy, playing in his home country, was tied for 12th at 3 under, while defending champ Xander Schauffele of the U.S. was a shot behind him. American star Bryson DeChambeau rallied from a disastrous 7-over opening round to fire a 6-under 65 that will likely get him to the weekend. Here's the live leaderboard.
Other stuff to watch in international sports:
* The Women's Euro soccer championship quarterfinals continue in Switzerland, where the host country was facing World Cup champion Spain this afternoon. The winner meets France or Germany, who play tomorrow. Yesterday, defending champion England trailed Sweden 2-0 with just 12 minutes left before rallying to win in a penalty shootout. The Lionesses will face Italy in the semis next week.
* The Tour de France continues with Canada's Mike Woods in 70th place overall through 13 of the 21 stages. Defending champion Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia won today's mountain time trial to retain the yellow jersey with his fourth stage victory of the tour. You can also watch the Canadian mountain bike championships Saturday on CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem.
* The Canadian men's rugby team plays its second of two international matches in Edmonton on Saturday against world No. 15 Spain. Canada, ranked 24th, lost 25-18 last week to No. 22 Belgium.
* Canada's men's volleyball team sits 14th out of 18 teams in the Nations League standings with three matches left. Canada (3-6) was facing the last-place Netherlands (1-9) this afternoon in Slovenia before playing 17th-place Serbia (2-8) on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. ET and seventh-place Ukraine (6-5) on Sunday at 7 a.m. ET. Watch those matches live on CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem. The top seven teams along with host China advance to the final round while the last-place team is out of the league next year. | | |  | 800m world champion Marco Arop will face his biggest rival again on Saturday in London. (Jewel Samad/AFP via Getty Images)
| | | That's it for today. Talk to you later.
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