April 26/12 20:10 pm - Junior Pan-Am Championships: Track Day 4 report and results

Posted by Editoress on 04/26/12
 

Day #4 in Guatemala at the Junior Pan-Am Championships had Canada on the podium for the 3rd time

Joakim Albert and Eric MacDonald were entered in the Keirin competition and both riders wanted to show their speed and tactics to the other countries. Albert advanced through to Round 2 with a victory in his 1st heat of the day. MacDonald had a much tougher time - he had 2 sprint medalists in his first heat. As planned Eric rode the race from the front, gaining advantage with a perfect acceleration onto the wheel of the motorbike (that paces the riders in the Keirin). With 200m to go Eric was swarmed by the top sprinters at the meet and had to settle for 5th. This meant he had to go to the second chance round (repechage) where again he took the motor and lead the race until the last 1/2 lap and was overtaken by 2 riders and MacDonald was eliminated from the tournament. MacDonald said, "what a cool experience, now that I know what to expect from these races..... bring more competitions on".

Joakim was preparing for the 2nd round of the Kierin and the team laid out a plan that if executed would advance the young Canadian to the finals for a medal. On the start Albert, jumped on the pacer and held a very strong position until the pacer (motorbike) exited the track.... this meant 600m of elbow to elbow action. Albert accelerated as planned, however the riders coming over the top were just a little quicker. Albert was trapped for about 50m when he accelerated through a small hole left by a Columbian who had just moved 6" outside of the sprinter lane.... that was the difference in this round as Albert launched an attack winning Round 2 and advancing to the Medal round later in the day.

In the Final, Albert had the motorbike as planned, and with the race about to 'explode' the motorbike came off the track Albert did what he knew the other riders were going to do and accelerated to match their speed. With 1 lap to go the field bunched together and Albert was shuffled to 4th, down the back stretch he again went through a hole only big enough for his handlebars... the move worked and Joakim Albert scored Canada's 3rd medal of the Championships.

In other racing:

The Men's and Women's Omnium (Day 1) started with 3 events: Flying lap, Points Race, Elimination (Miss & Out). Adian Caves and Kinley Gibson are Team Canada's entries in the gruelling Omnium competition.

In the opening event, the Flying Lap, both Caves (14.00) and Gibson (15.94) lead the competition with the fastest laps of the day. The next event was the Points race 25k for the boys and 10k for the girls. Caves had a good start and was scoring points throughout the race, knowing he had to win the last sprint to move up the ladder, he attacked the bunch and took the 5 remaining points in the last sprint, this moved him to 8th in the final standings. Gibson had another solid performance in her points race that had the top 3 riders battle all race long, in the end she finished in 3rd position and held onto the overall lead.

The last event was the Elimination, officials decided this race and Caves was eliminated in error early in the going.... only to be reinstated after a little discussion with race officials (who love the Canadian team at this point). The extra effort to get bck into the race took it's toll and Caves was the 4th rider eliminated... official results are yet to be posted. Gibson again rode her own race and finshed third in the Elimination race for women, and is currently third overall.

The last day of Track competition has many Canadians in race action..... Omnium finishes with Adian Caves & Kinley Gibson, Men's Kilo Joakim Albert & Vincent DeHaitre, Women's Scratch Race Bailin Xie & Sarah Mason, Women's Keirin Audrey Labrie & Sarah Mason, Men's Madison.