Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 27, 2015, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE C1 Same old story for Bombers / C3 SPORTS SPORTS EDITOR: STEVE LYONS 204- 697- 7285 I SPORTS@ FREEPRESS. MB. CA I WINNIPEGFREEPRESS. COM MONDAY, JULY 27, 2015 C 1 TORONTO - On the final day of the Pan Am Games, two more Manitobans added their names to the list of athletes coming home with medals. Toon Van Lankvelt from Rivers and Brandon's Dustin Schneider - members of the men's volleyball team - claimed bronze medals as Canada defeated Puerto Rico 25- 11, 25- 12, 23- 25, 25- 18 Sunday. " It was pretty good," said Schneider, a 30- year- old veteran of the national team who played collegiately at the University of Winnipeg. " It was a pretty stressful game, especially after our last game against Argentina ( semifinal loss Friday), where we felt like we were better than them for most of the game and kind of blew it. So today was a little bit stressful, but it feels good now it's over." Van Lankvelt, 31, who was a Wesmen teammate of Schneider a decade ago, said it was " tough mentally" to be in the bronze- medal match. " It wasn't our goal," said Van Lankvelt, whose professional career has taken him all over Europe. " Our goal was to come here and win gold. That being said, bronze is still an achievement. And I think we should be happy with that in a sense. It's always a positive to finish on the podium at a major international tournament. And it was a good way to finish off the tournament after a disappointing semifinal loss." He added having a day off between the semis and the bronze- medal game helped a lot. " We were able to kind of refocus, and the guys came back today and did the job. We started off really well, had a little dip, and then came back in the fourth ( set). Then we won it quite easily, so in the end we got the job done today." Both players raved about the deafening crowds. The venue was sold out each session with about 4,000 people in the stands. They described the experience of playing in front of such enthusiastic fans as a career highlight. " Since I've been playing, I've never had a crowd in Canada that's been this vocal and loud in games," said Schneider. " Usually, we spectate quite politely during the games, but it's been incredible here." The Canadian men are ranked 14th in the world. Brazil - which lost the goldmedal match Sunday to sixth- ranked Argentina - is ranked number one. It will be a long and difficult task for the Canadians to qualify for the Rio Olympics, but after a two- week break, that's where the focus will be for Van Lankvelt, Schneider and their teammates. The volleyball duo's showing was the last in a string of great performances by Manitobans over the two weeks of the Games. Chantal Van Landeghem led the way by winning two gold medals and a silver in the pool. Nicole Sifuentes won a silver in the 1,500 metres on the track, while Isabela Onyshko was part of the team that took silver in gymnastics and Shae Fournier was on the silver- winning women's water polo team. There were also bronzes for Jay Lyon in archery and Jennifer Saunders in racquetball. Taylor Pischke in beach volleyball, Erin Teschuk in the 3,000- metre steeplechase and Curtis Wennberg in shooting, narrowly missed making the podium. By Ed Klajman ' Tobans wrap Games with volleyball bronze CHRIS YOUNG / THE CANADIAN PRESS Canada's Dustin Schneider powers a spike past the Puerto Rican defence. T ORONTO - Welcomed with a hearty roar, Kanye West ran through a careerspanning collection of his hits to close out a Pan Am Games headlined by a harder, better, faster, stronger Canada - until a faulty microphone didn't let the rapper finish. Nearly 40,000 spectators packed Toronto's Rogers Centre to raise a toast to Canada's athletes - and their recordsetting 217- medal haul - at the Pan Am Games closing ceremony, and West's surprisingly long performance would have put an exclamation point on the evening, already marked by a flamboyant fireworks display lighting up the CN Tower like a rainbowleafed palm tree, if not for the sound gaffe. West tried in vain for a period of time to overcome the error, before tossing his mike high into the air and letting it smash while he stalked offstage. The crowd chanted " Kanye!" in his absence. Although the closing ceremony was otherwise perhaps less grand than the opening, it was still an expansive production best explained by some of its staggering statistics: 510 volunteers in the cast, 500- plus costumes from 3,000- plus yards of fabric and roughly 3,235 athletes, who flooded the venue's floor as one fully integrated contingent. The stage was multiple stages really, connected by a network of runways, and it was shadowed by columns as high as 20 metres intended to depict Toronto's ever- rising skyline. Spiritually, the show was about Toronto too. The Ontario capital's diversity inspired the ceremony's centrepiece, where dozens of dancers and performers filled the light- bathed stage with globally derived movements, each meant to pay tribute to a locally prevalent population. Brazilian capoeira gurus acrobatically spun through the air, Chinese tai chi specialists wove together in careful synchronicity to form a dragon, and Argentine tangoers sashayed seductively. Other eye- catching dances were intended to nod toward the city's First Nations, Caribbean, Indian, Filipino and Irish populations, with energetic modern dancers strutting out to the sound of a swiftly strummed acoustic guitar for the section's finale - an apparent general Canadian dedication that ended with the indoor emergence of a CN Tower setpiece, which was swiftly showered in pyrotechnics. Though imbued with a school's- out party spirit, the two- hour show still featured no less mandatory housekeeping than the Cirque du Soleil- curated opening ceremony ( which drew a sold- out crowd of roughly 45,000 to the same venue). There were three speeches, from Pan American Sports Organization vicepresident Ivar Sisniega and TO2015 CEO Saad Rafi, who declared: " At these Games, hope won out, optimism prevailed ( and) community spirit carried the day." There was the handover ceremony - the symbolic transfer of Pan Am responsibility to 2019 host city Lima - which was followed by a creative segment during which a little Peruvian boy journeyed around the world with his alpaca ( or this was how the plot was explained in the show's companion literature). The segment concluded with more than 50 performers converging on the stage to dance to Carnaval , by Peruvian band La Sarita. The entrance of the flags and parade of nations, at least, were accomplished in a far more raucously casual fashion than at the opening ceremony, with gold medal- winning basketball star Kia Nurse toting the flag for Canada. Still, the crowd kicked up the most energy for the close. First, Serena Ryder - a six- time Juno winner - wrapped her weightlifting voice around a three- song set headlined by Stompa, before Miami pop- rapper Pitbull strutted onstage for a trio of his own club- thumping hits, the third of which - his smash Ne- Yo collaboration Give Me Everything - succeeded in finally coaxing some movement from the crowd. And then it was consistently boundto- controversy West, whose promised presence at the closing ceremony sparked a fleeting outcry from certain corners. He was greeted with deafening warmth Sunday, stepping onstage completely alone to perform his undeniable 2008 hit Stronger. He then ran through his feisty Power, which flowed into his even- feistier Black Skinhead, and then yet another defiant classic, Can't Tell Me Nothing. " Everyone in the arena, clap your hands like this," he instructed. " We celebrating y'all tonight!" With the stadium lights brightly turned up, frankly detracting slightly from the energy, he continued with a set that included Touch the Sky, The Good Life, and All of the Lights. It's not clear how he would have closed out the show if not for the error - but a fitting choice might have been Gold Digger, which snuck into the middle of his set. The chart- topping tune might have resonated with the plundering Canadians in the crowd, anyway, who wound up with a second- best 78 gold medals at these Games. - The Canadian Press Pan Ams end with panache Kanye, Serena, Pitbull rock closing ceremony By Nick Patch PHOT0S BY MARK BLINCH / THE CANADIAN PRESS Kanye West had the joint jumping ( top) until his mike failed, while perennial Juno winner Serena Ryder had the Rogers Centre crowd of 40,000 clappin' their hands and stompin' their feet. C_ 01_ Jul- 27- 15_ FP_ 01. indd C1 7/ 26/ 15 10: 35: 41 PM ;