HISTORIC FINISH FOR CANADIAN MEN’S TEAM PURSUIT

TOKYO (August 4, 2021) – After setting a new Canadian record in Round 1 of the men’s Team Pursuit on Tuesday, Vincent De Haître, Jay Lamoureux, Michael Foley and Derek Gee bettered their record in the 5-6 final clocking in at 3:46.324. Their time would edge out the German team for fifth spot and be the best performance for Canadian men in the event in 89 years.

“Yesterday we were super happy with our time and we didn’t think we had any chance of surpassing it again,” said Foley. “We were just focused on winning the ride but the best way to do that was to go as fast as we could, so we just went after it again. We were cracking hard at the end but we brought it around and just to see the time was even better was crazy.”

Sprint competitions also kicked off with Lauriane Genest and Kelsey Mitchell making their Games debut in the women’s Keirin. The duo won their respective heats and automatically advanced to tomorrow’s quarterfinals, with semis and finals also taking place on the same day.

“We’ve trained so hard, for so long and we tried to simulate racing to the best of our abilities, but nothing comes close to this in the Olympics. Adrenaline is a magical thing and I’m just so happy with how the race went,” said Mitchell.

In the men’s Sprint, Wammes posted the best Canadian time in qualifying and set a new personal best of 9.587, while Hugo Barrette posted a time of 9.596 seconds. They both advanced to the 1/32 finals, where Nick Wammes beat former world champion, Stefan Boetticher, to advance to the 1/16 rounds. Both men did not advance to the 1/8 finals.

Racing resumes tomorrow with Genest and Mitchell both competing in the women’s Keirin quarterfinals. All competitions can be streamed live on CBC Olympics.