Bishop and Jacques qualify for Olympic Finals

RIO DE JANEIRO— It was a historic day for Lions athletes as both Melissa Bishop and Farah Jacques will compete for Olympic medals after both advancing to finals on Thursday.
Bishop was second in her 800m semi-final, crossing the line in one minute 59.05 seconds, just beating Poland’s Joanna Jozwik in 1:58.93. It marks the first time a Lion has qualified for an individual event final at an Olympic Games.
 
Bishop kicked her way home over the final half lap, distancing her self from the bunched up pack. “When there’s eight of us trying to run in one lane, it gets pretty tight,” Bishop said of a couple of bumping incidents. “I think it’s just making yourself aware. You know how long your stride is. You just have to gauge it off what everyone else’s is. It’s tough.
“I’m really excited. This is my first Olympic final, but certainly not my first final. So I think if I can rest up and recover well and come here on the day with everything at 100 per cent, I’ll be okay.” Bishop races Saturday night 8:15pm Eastern.
Farah Jacques ran lead off for Canada’s 4x100m relay team Thursday morning, helping the quartet to a seasonal best 42.70 second clocking, just thousandths ahead of China for the 8th and final qualifying spot. It was the first time running lead-off for Jacques, who admitted to feeling a bit nervous. However, she told Athletics Canada she is very excited and ready for tonight’s final. The women run at 9:15pm Eastern.
The final Lion competing on day seven of the track and field program was shot putter Tim Nedow. The 26 year old from Brockville managed to heave the ball out to a best of 20.00m to finish 16th overall. Nedow was battling to feel relaxed in the circle.
“Warm up didn’t feel that great, my first throw I just tightened up like crazy, that’s one of the disadvantages of being tall, if I tighten up it’s pretty much over,” said the Canadian champion.
“Second throw I was more relaxed, threw 20-metres which isn’t that bad, but it’s not great either. I wished that would have been my first throw, third throw again I tightened up at the last second, if not I feel like that would have been over 20.50-metres. At this level you can’t do that. Unfortunately, 20-metres wasn’t enough to make it through.”