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2015 Pan Am Games: Day 1 track cycling events

The long-awaited first day of track competition of the Pan Am Games started Thursday morning in Milton, Ont.

Remi Pelletier-Roy

by Kevin Mackinnon

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The long-awaited first day of track competition of the Pan Am Games started Thursday morning in Milton, Ont. The Canadian national team put on an amazing show in their new national training centre. While it’s going by the Cisco Pan Am Velodrome for the next few weeks, once the Games are done, the Mattamy National Training Centre will be home to the Canadian team. The squad is putting on quite a housewarming show so far. Here’s a recap of the morning qualifying events.

Women’s Team Pursuit Qualifying

There were nine teams to sort out in the qualifying round of the team pursuit, with Chile leading the way onto the track for the first event of the Pan Am track competition. Fourth to go was Venezuela, who managed to finally get started after two false starts. The squad posted a leading time of 4:44.176 for the 4-km pursuit, only to have that time obliterated by Mexico just a few minutes later as the Mexicans ripped through a 4:37.003 to move in front.

Cuba made a gallant attempt at unseating the Mexicans at the top of the podium, but ended up a couple of seconds short, setting the stage for the Americans and Canadians to rip things apart.

The Americans did just that, riding a full 12 seconds faster than the Mexicans, posting a 4:25 and forcing the Canadians to pull out all the stops to ensure they had the fastest time of the day, which they did in impressive style. Through 2 km, the Canadian group of Jasmin Glaesser, Allison Beveridge, Laura Brown and Kristi Lay were more than two seconds ahead and hung on to finish in 4:24.368.

“A couple of laps in, I was starting to hear the crowd,” said Brown. “I was saying, ‘Stay focused, Laura,’ because it’s so easy, the home crowd cheering. I’ve never had that before, so it was very motivating.”

Men’s Omnium

First up for Canada’s Remi Pelletier-Roy and the rest of the 11 man field in the omnium was the scratch race. The tactical, 60-lap, 15-km race was won by Ecuador’s Jose Ragonessi Guzman, who managed to sneak away and lap the field to take the win.  Pelletier-Roy had a fantastic final-lap sprint to take fourth, ahead of the man he was marking throughout the race, Columbia’s Fernando Gaviria Rendon, the defending world omnium champ.

If Pelletier-Roy looked good in the scratch race, he looked simply amazing in the individual pursuit, flying through the 4-km effort in a race-leading 4:25.189, good enough to move him into second overall in the omnium standings.

Women’s Team Sprint

Team Canada continued to thrill the crowd in the qualifying for the two-lap women’s sprint event as Kate O’Brien and Monique Sullivan set a new Pan Am record (33.584) to qualify first to the final.  They will take on Cuba in the final Thursday night, while Columbia and Mexico will battle for the bronze medal.

Men’s Team Sprint

Not to be outdone, the Canadian men’s trio of Hugo Barrette, Joseph Veloce and Evan Carey posted the fastest qualifying time in the men’s sprint, riding 44.242 to earn themselves a spot in the final against the defending Pan Am sprint champions Venezuela. Brazil and Columbia will take each other on for the bronze medal.

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