July 18/15 1:07 am - Two Gold Medals for Canada on Day 2 of Pan Am Track
Posted by Editor on 07/18/15
Canadian cyclists continue to rack up the medals at the Pan Am Games, adding their sixth and seventh gold medals to the tally on Day 2 of racing at the Milton Velodrome on Friday. Monique Sullivan took her second gold medal of the Games in the Women's Keirin, while the Women's Team Pursuit squad also took gold.
Canada's Women's Team Pursuit squad was expected to win gold - anything less would have been considered a disaster. While the team of Jasmin Glaesser, Kirsti Lay, Laura Brown and Allison Beveridge qualified first and won their Round 1 race to get into the gold medal final, the American squad led by Sarah Hammer was stronger then expected, leading to some worries.
Team Canada
Team USA
The worries seemed to to solidify when the Americans matched the Canadians pedal stroke for pedal stroke in the first half of the final, taking the lead on some laps. But then the U.S. squad began to crack, losing one rider and then completely falling apart, with Hammer riding alone off the front and the team barely managing to avoid being caught. Mexico beat Cuba for bronze.
Podium: USA, Canada, Mexico
Beveridge, Brown, Glaesser, Lay
In the Women's Keirin, Sullivan was the class of the field, although the results were held up when Cuba protested that Sullivan had overlapped the derny bike; an automatic disqualification. She had not done so, and the officials quickly ruled that way.
Monique Sullivan
The Men's Omnium concluded with the final three events - Kilo, Flying Lap and Points Race. Remi Pelletier-Roy moved into third before the final event, the Points Race, and then moved up to second during the race. World champion Fernando Gaviria (Colombia) was clearly the strongest to easily take the title, with Ignacio Prado (Mexico) moving solidly into second. There was a battle between Pelletier Roy, Mauro Richeze (Argentina) and Gideoni Rodrigues (Brazil) for the remaining two spots.
Rémi Pelletier-Roy
World champion Fernando Gaviria (Colombia)
Rémi Pelletier-Roy (left) hits the line in the final sprint in the Points race
Richeze and Rodrigues both took laps to get ahead of Pelletier-Roy, but when the Canadian attempted to take a lap on a few occasions, there was a remarkable mount of effort by other Latin American riders (other then the Argentine and Brazilian) to pull him back; particularly the Mexican Prado, who had no clear reason to chase. When Pelletier-Roy was asked to comment on possible Latin American collusion, he shrugged and smiled, and refused to comment. Rodrigues took the bronze, with Pelletier-Roy finishing fifth.
Hugo Barrette holds off Fabian Puerta Zapata to advance to the Semi-Final
The other competition was the start of the Men's Sprint, with Canada's Hugo Barrette qualifying first at 9.(78 seconds, 1/1000ths off the Pan Am record. Barrette then had to go through the Repechage to get to the quarter-finals after crashing and then getting relegated in the 1/8th Final. He went up against the top-ranked rider, Fabian Puerta Zapata (Colombia) in the quarter-final, winning the first race, losing the second and then taking the third ride to move on to the semi-finals. Joseph Veloce qualified fifth but lost out to Njisane Philip (Trinidad & Tobago) in the quarter-finals, to end up sixth overall. Barrette will race the semi-finals and either gold or bronze final on Saturday.
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