July 13/02 10:15 am - National Track Championships: Day 2 Story

Posted by Editoress on 07/13/02
 

National Track Championships Bromont, Quebec

Members of the Commonwealth Games team dominated the second day of competition at the Canadian National Track Championships. Clara Hughes, who has returned to cycling after winning a bronze medal in speedskating at Salt Lake, took her second national title of the championships in the women's 3000m individual pursuit. Her time of three minutes and 51.787 seconds was 2.142 seconds better then Erin Carter, also a member of the Games squad. Hughes is competing in her first track championships since 1993. Alexandre Cloutier took the men's 4000m title with a time of 4:42.354, ahead of Robert Veroba who was caught by Cloutier.

"Erin started out stronger than me and was leading (early in the race), but one of the things that I have learned from speedskating is confidence and to stick to a plan. I knew that I was stronger in the final kilometre and could finish faster."

In the sprint events, Steen Madsen and Lori-Ann Muenzer successfully defended their titles, as they continue to prepare for the Games in just over two weeks time. Neither rider lost a race as they worked their way through the best of 3 elimination format. Madsen was relegated in a semi-final ride against his brother Lars, but one the next two rides to move on to the gold medal final.

In the Points Race, Marc Ernsting was consistently at the front in the crucial sprint laps to beat fellow British Columbian Ian Condron, 30 points to 26.