August 8/23 7:35 am - 3 Medals for Canada at the Track

Posted by Editoress on 08/8/23
 

Canada had one of its strongest days ever on the track on Monday, with riders winning two silver medals and a bronze medal, and another rider finishing just out of the medals in fourth place. Keely Shaw was the first to medal, taking silver in the Women's C4 Individual Pursuit, followed by Mel Pemble's bronze in the Women's C3 500 metre time trial - Pemble medalled despite her hand slipping off the bars at the start. Finally, Dylan Bibic, last year's Scratch Race world champion, won silver in the Men's Elimination. Tarek Dabah, who has only been in the sport six months, showed that he is one to watch by finishing fourth in the C2 1000 metre time trial.

L to r: Mel Pemble, Dylan Bibic, Keely Shaw

Link to photo galleries

"Obviously, I knew going in the medal round that I was going up against the best Pursuiter in the world [Emily Petricola (Australia)] in my class," said Shaw, "but that doesn't mean that I can't go out there and give it everything I've got. At the end of the day, it's an individual pursuit, it's a timed event, and I know my times, my power output, and all I could do was try to improve, and keep moving forward towards a better performance that will hopefully bring a better outcome in the next competition, the next Paralympics."

"I woke up this morning and I was super fatigued," admitted Bibic. "I really left everything on the table yesterday [in the Omnium]. I was definitely not satisfied, pretty upset with my Scratch [6th], pretty upset with my Omnium [10th overall, two top-5s], and this was one of my last chances to walk away from this Worlds satisfied. I can definitely walk away not mad [with silver]. If you look at the podium ... these guys are getting paid crazy amounts and then there's me. It's an honour to be up there with them, [Elia] Viviani [Italy] and Ethan [Vernon, GBR]; I look up to them and it's really cool to be racing them."

[Note: We have a full interview with Dylan Here]

In other events, Kelsey Mitchell, Lauriane Genest and Sarah Orban all qualified for the Women's Sprint. Orban was knocked out in the 1/16th final round, but Mitchell and Genest both moved on and will race Tuesday. In BMX Freestyle, Canada's only entry, Jeffrey Whaley finished 12th in the men. Several Canadians raced to top-10 finishes at the Gran Fondo Individual Time Trial, with Joël Katz (Men 65-69) and Bruce Bird (Men 55-59) each in seventh place, Serghei Maximenco (Men 45-49) in eighth and Diane Bomans (Women 55-59) and Zack Morris (Men 35-39) finishing ninth.

In non-Canadian results, Harrie Lavreysen (Netherlands) won his fifth consecutive men's Sprint title, in a battle of speedsters against Nicholas Paul (Trinidad & Tobago). Also, in a very crashed-filled Women's Madison, host Great Britain beat Australia and France.

Track Worlds: Day 6 results and Photos