November 16/11 20:43 pm - ParaPanamerican Games: Day 2 Track Cycling, 2 (more) Medals for Canada

Posted by Editoress on 11/16/11
 

Results and report from the 2nd day of track racing in Guadalajara, Mexico

Robbi Weldon and Lyne Bessette remain perfect in three races at Parapan-American Games in Mexico

Another day, more gold medals for the Canadian Para-cycling Team competing at the 2011 Parapan-American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico.

With the second and last day of track cycling competition, Canadian para-cyclists continued to excel amongst the best Pan-American countries, with yet another gold medal performance by Robbi Weldon (Thunder Bay, ON) and Lyne Bessette (Knowlton, QC). This time, the tandem won their third gold medal in as many races in the women’s 1000m Time Trial at the Panamerican Velodrome.

The women’s tandem posted a time of 1:13.372 to capture the gold medal, edging the American tandem of Karissa Whitsell and Lisa Turnbull by less than two-tenths of a second.

“This was one of our best wins. Today was the toughest of all our races and I was really happy with our performance and setting a personal best. We have three down and one more to go now,” commented Weldon after the feat.

Teammate and pilot Lyne Bessette added: “For us it was a challenge because we are not considered a speed team. We started slow but stayed on pace, it was tough at the end. But as I told Robbi, ‘let’s just keep pulling’, and it paid off for us.”

In the men’s race, the Daniel Chalifour (St-Jérome, QC) and Ed Veal (Toronto, ON) today rode to the silver medal of the men’s 1000m Time Trial. Chalifour and Veal won the Gold medal in the individual pursuit on Tuesday, and the bronze medal in the road individual time trials on Sunday.

“Today was good day for us, we were so close to winning. This was our first kilo together, we learned fast together. We set a new Canadian record so I am happy,” said Chalifour. His teammate Ed Veal commented: “We rode a perfect (race) and exceeded expectations. It was just tough coming in second.”

Earlier in the day, Marie-Claude Molnar (Ste-Adèle, QC) rode to the bronze medal in the C4-C5 Individual Pursuit with a time of 4:05.403, and in doing so broke the previous World Record for the C4 category.

“It was a good day for speed today. There were a few world records set, the velodrome was warm and the track fast. My pacing during the race was really good and I was really proud and excited when I saw my time,” explained Molnar of her fast time.

In the men’s Individual Pursuit C1-C3, both Mathieu Parent and Jaye Milley broke their personal best times. Parent ended in eight position overall while Milley followed in ninth.

Courtesy CCA

* World Record