After picking up Canada's first medal at the 26th Summer Universiade Nathan Gafuik struck again Tuesday with a silver medal at the vault on the final day of artistic gymnastics action.
Gafuik won a bronze medal Monday in the individual all-around competition. But on Tuesday the Athabasca University student became the first Canadian gymnast to capture two individual medals at the same world university games.
"It feels pretty good. It's not exactly the medal I wanted, but it'll do," said Gafuik, who was a substitute with the Canadian squad at the 2005 Universiade in Izmir, Turkey.
Gafuik came close to winning a third medal in the horizontal bar but dropped from third to fourth following an exceptional performance by eventual gold medallist Huezhang Chen of China.
In the vault, Gafuik went last and earned 16.112 points to take the silver, just behind Flavius Koczi of Romania (16.237).
"I keep all my medals in shoeboxes, labelled for each year that I have competed, so these ones are going into the archive," Gafuik said.
In swimming, Canada took part in three finals Tuesday.
Tera van Beilen was fourth in the women's 200-metre breaststroke, finishing just 11 hundredths of a second out of third spot. The Oakville, Ont., native mounted a comeback, after being seventh at the 150-metre turn, but just fell short to bronze medallist Satomi Suzuki of Japan.
Edmonton's Hanna Pierse was eighth in the 400 individual medley. That result was duplicated in the final race of the evening by the men's 4x200 freestyle relay team of Ottawa's Dominique Massie-Martel, Victoria's Nick Sinclair, Edmonton's Kier Maitland and Saskatoon's Colin Miazga.
On the first day of the athletics competition, Timothy Nedow of Brockville, Ont., finished 12th in the shot put final with an effort of 18.13 metres.
In the women's 400 metres, Jenna Martin of Bridgewater, N.S., and Calgary's Amonn Nelson both qualified for the semifinals. Ottawa's Michael Robertson will compete in the men's 400-metre semifinals, while Toronto's Mark Dillon is off to the high jump final.
Dontae Richards-Kwok of Mississauga, Ont., is through to the semifinals of the men's 100-metre event after posting a personal-best time of 10.32 seconds in his opening heat, before running 10.35 in the second round. Helen Crofts of West Vancouver, B.C., and Annie LeBlanc of Repentigny, Que., both qualified for the 800-metre semifinals.
Canada (3-0) all but clinched a spot in the quarter-finals of men's volleyball, with a 3-0 (25-20, 25-18, 25-14) win over Norway (1-2). Spencer Leiske of Lacombe, Alta., had 10 kills for the Canadians, who finish Group A play with a match against Australia (1-2) on Wednesday.
In women's beach volleyball, the Canada 1 team of Caleigh Whitaker of Sharon, Ont., and Toronto's Kristina Valjas won its opening match of the double-elimination second round 17-21, 21-10, 15-7 over USA 1. But they suffered their first loss of the tournament to Italy in their second game of the day, also in three games (24-22, 19-21, 14-16).
The Canada 2 team of Toronto's Kristina Vlcek and Ottawa's Becky Billings lost 2-0 to Slovakia (23-21, 21-10) in its only game of the day. Both teams see action Wednesday.
In the men's event, the Canada 1 squad of Simon Fecteau-Boutin of Levis, Que., and Cameron Wheelan of Barrie, Ont., was eliminated from the tournament following a 2-0 loss to the Czech Republic (21-19, 21-15).
In women's water polo, Monika Eggens of Pitt Meadows, B.C., scored six goals but it still wasn't enough as Canada (0-2-1) fell 15-12 to China. The Canadians face Russia in the Thursday's quarter-finals in a rematch of the bronze-medal game from the 2009 Universiade, which the Russians won.
Canada picked up its first point of the men's soccer tournament after a 1-1 tie with Ghana in its final Group D match. Carl Haworth of Barrie, Ont., scored on a penalty for the Canadians, who will miss the quarter-finals for the second straight Universiade.
In women's table tennis, Montreal's Sara Yuen won both her matches. She defeated Hoiyan Lok of Hong Kong 3-2 (12-10, 7-11, 11-7, 7-11, 11-4) before downing American Barbara Wei 3-2 (13-11, 8-11, 7-11, 11-6, 11-7) to advance to the next round. But her twin sister Stephanie couldn't duplicate her success, falling 3-0 (11-3, 11-8, 11-6) to the Ukraine's Ganna Farladanska.
In men's action, Montreal's Peng Guo was swept 11-8, 11-4, 11-7 by Kentaro Miuchi of Japan to fall to 1-1 in his group while Pierre-Luc Hinse of Gatineau, Que., defeated Italy's Romualdo Manna 3-1 (11-8, 12-10, 8-11, 11-7). Hinse has one more preliminary match remaining Wednesday.