Canada scores bronze medal in women’s team pursuit – Photos
Zach Bell opens men's omnium in ninth place.
Canada’s women’s team pursuit squad secured a bronze medal during day three of track racing at the London Olympics on Saturday. Zach Bell opened the men’s omnium in ninth place after the first three events.
“It really feels amazing. We had to regroup and I’m really proud of how the team came together today,” Whitten said in a press release. “We were just fighting the whole way and it’s just amazing to have done it. We made a decision to use the energy of the crowd. It’s so loud, you can either let it distract you or feed off that energy. We just did our own ride. It’s been really exciting to see the depth of Canadian track cyclist now.”
Tara Whitten, Gillian Carleton and Jasmin Glaesser placed fourth in the first qualifying round.
They placed second, with a time of 3:17.454 minutes, to Great Britain in heat four of the next round of team pursuits, and then advanced to the bronze medal round.
The team won the bronze medal after racing against Australia’s trio Annette Edmondson, Melissa Hoskins and Josephine Tomic, beating their opponents with a time of 3:17.915.
Great Britain won the gold medal round with a time of 3:14.051 against the U.S.A, who finished the distance in 3:19.727 and earned the silver medal.
The men’s omnium opened with the 250-metre flying time trial won by Great Britain’s Edward Clancy in a time of 12.556 seconds. He out-paced New Zealands’ Shane Archbold and Australia’s Glenn O’Shea. Bell placed seventh with a time of 13.406 seconds.
He competed in the 30-kilometre points race later in the day and earned four points, good enough for 13th place. Germany’s Roger Kluge won the event with 79 points, beating Lasse Norman Hansen of Denmark by 20 points and Eloy Teruel Rovira of Spain by an additional four points.
The omnium continued with the elimination race where Bell placed 10th, behind winner Bryan Coquard of France and runner-up Elia Viviani of Italy.
Bell is currently sitting in 9th place in the overall standings following the three events with a total of 30 points. With only 10 points, Coquard is leading the omnium ahead of Viviani, who has 13 points and O’Shea with 14.
The men’s omnium will continue with the 4km individual pursuit, 15km scratch race and 1km time trail.
Photos by Casey Gibson: cbgphoto.com
