Canadian Juniors breaking records at Track World Championships

Frankfurt, Germany (August 17th, 2019) – Team Canada won their first medal of the Junior Track World Championships on Friday, with a bronze medal performance from Tristan Jussaume of Contrecoeur, Quebec, in the Individual Pursuit.  Jussaume set a time of 3:14.555 in the qualifying round – a new national record – and then beat Zach Bridges of Great Britain in the bronze medal final.

“I really wasn’t expecting this,” said Jussaume.  “I had in my head to do 3:20 and maybe I could do a Canadian record, but I wasn’t certain.  At the same time, I told myself it’s the World Championships and I have to give it all, but I wasn’t thinking about the podium.  This means so much to me, for all the hours I’ve put in, the training camps and all the efforts.”

Jussaume’s record was the 5th national record broken at these events. On the opening day in Frankfurt, The Junior men’s Team Sprint squad of James Hedgcock, Andrew Scott and Riley Pickrell knocked nearly a second off the national record, with a new time of 46.280 seconds, eventually finishing eighth overall.  In the men’s Team Pursuit, the squad of Tristan Jussaume, Riley Pickrell, Sean Richardson and Jackson Kinniburgh set a qualifying time of 4:06.342, nearly 3.5 seconds faster than the old record.

Day 2 saw the women’s Team Pursuit time of 4:31.926 set by the team of Ngaire Barraclough, Sarah van Dam, Lily Plante and Adele Desgagnes knock the existing record by just over six-tenths of a second off of the previous one, set in 2017. Women’s sprinter Madison Dempster followed up with breaking the 200m sprint Canadian record that has stood for 12 years, with a time of 11.501.

The Junior Track World Championships will continue through the weekend.