Gold medal for Chalifour/Cloutier tandem at Parapan-American Games

MILTON, Ont. – Daniel Chalifour of Mont-Laurier, Que., and his pilot Alexandre Cloutier of St-Antoine-de-Tilly, Que., won the gold medal Monday in the mixed individual pursuit for visually impaired in track para-cycling action at the Parapan American Games.

It was the second medal of the Games for the tandem. They took silver on Saturday in the road race.

Chalifour and Cloutier clocked three minutes and 19.555 seconds in the 4000-m race. They lapped their opponents in the final Nelson Serna and Sebastian Durango of Colombia near the end of the race. Luciano Da Rosa and Edson De Rezende of Brazil were third.

It was a very special victory for Chalifour born with a degenerative eye disease that causes visual impairment.

“I was thinking about my father,” he said. “He had a tumour removed and has been fighting cancer for two years. So in my race he was my inspiration and both Alexandre and I wanted to give him the gold medal.”