Heese and Cadieux fail to qualify for Beijing

JAMES CHRISTIE Globe and Mail Update Canada's Olympic hopes received a second disappointing blow Friday when the beach volleyball team of Mark Heese and Ahren Cadieux failed to qualify for the Beijing Games. The Toronto pair was aiming at a top-10 placing in this week's final Olympic qualifier at Marseille, but finished 17th. They lost tight opening round matches to Italy, 25-23 and 21-19, came back to beat the Czech Republic 21-18 and 21-14, before falling in an hour-long battle with the eighth-seeded Norwegians. Canada won the first tilt 21-16 then was edged 28-26 and 16-14. Heese, a bronze medalist at the Atlanta Games in 1996, was going for his fourth straight Olympics while Ahren Cadieux was shooting for his first Olympics. Earlier, the Canadian men's basketball team was eliminated by Croatia in the quarterfinals of... [read full story]