Hugo Barrette takes gold in men’s sprint at Pan Am Games
That grin on Jacques Landry’s face isn’t likely to disappear any time soon. Cycling Canada’s high performance director was beaming at the end of Saturday night’s Pan Am track session at the Cisco Pan Am Velodrome (which will become the Mattamy Homes Cycling Centre after the Games), and for good reason.
by Kevin Mackinnon
That grin on Jacques Landry’s face isn’t likely to disappear any time soon. Cycling Canada’s high performance director was beaming at the end of Saturday night’s Pan Am track session at the Cisco Pan Am Velodrome (which will become the Mattamy Homes Cycling Centre after the Games), and for good reason. The Canadian sprint crew continued their impressive performances, Jasmin Glaesser remained in the medal hunt in the women’s omnium and despite some miscommunication, the men’s pursuit squad still had a shot at a medal, too.
Barrette powers through
Hugo Barrette was looking to add another gold medal to Canada’s Pan Am-leading total in the men’s sprint and delivered in impressive fashion, taking the first two heats of the men’s final over Trinidad and Tobago’s Phillip Njisane. Making the moment even more poignant was the fact that Canada’s chef de mission, famous Canadian sprinter Curt Harnett, was in the stands next to the finish line, holding a Canadian flag with pride as he saw Barrette edge Njisane to the line by a hair in the second heat.
Not to be outdone by their male counterpart, Monique Sullivan and Kate O’Brien looked incredible, too, as they took their quarter final match ups in the women’s sprint.
Photo finish for Glaesser
The women’s omnium rounded out the first day of racing with the elimination race, which came down to a monstrous sprint between American favourite Sarah Hammer and Canada’s Jasmine Glaesser. The two were so close on the line that officials couldn’t call a winner, so the race ended in a tie. Heading into the final day of racing on Sunday, Hammer leads Glaesser by four points, setting things up for a thrilling finale.
Columbia cruises
After cruising through Saturday morning’s qualifying round, the Canadian team pursuit squad of Eric Johnstone, Rémi Pelletier-Roy, Sean Mackinnon and Adam Jamieson managed to get themselves separated, which led to a bit of catch up and a 4:11 time, enough to get them into Sunday’s bronze medal round, but slower than the 4:07 they posted earlier in the day. The gold is likely completely out of reach for any team that isn’t wearing the Colombian colours Sunday–the Pan Am record holders cruised to a 4:04 clocking and a birth in the gold-medal final against Argentina, while the young Canadian crew will take on Venezuela for the final spot on the podium.
