GOLDEN DAY FOR CANADA AT TRACK PAN-AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS
Stephanie Roorda wins Points race; Monique Sullivan tops the podium in women’s sprint
(Ottawa, ON – September 04, 2015) Canada earned two gold medals and one bronze medal today at the 2015 UCI Track Pan-American Championships in Santiago, Chile with Stephanie Roorda winning the points race and Monique Sullivan sprinting her way to the gold medal.
Sprinter Monique Sullivan took no mercy of her competition today, winning both her semi-final and finals to capture the gold medal. Sullivan won the same event at the Pan-Am Games earlier this summer and is establishing herself as the women’s sprinter to beat in the Americas. Her teammate Kate O’Brien wasn’t so lucky today, ending up in fourth place.
In the women’s 20km points race, it was Steph Roorda winning the first gold for Team Canada at these Track Pan-American Championships. Roorda, with superb support from her teammate Kirsti Lay, amassed 43 points to take the win over USA’s Kimberly Giest with 38 points. Roorda was thrilled with her win, capping off a successful summer campaign where she won twice in August in European road races.
The women’s Omnium kicked off today with Allison Beveridge placing sixth in a very tactical 10km scratch race. Riding against Sara Hammer in the next discipline, the 3000m pursuit, Allison posted a personal best of 3:39.7 to finish third and move into fourth overall place heading into the final race of the day, the elimination. Displaying skill and tenacity, Allison fought off aggressive challenges from the Mexican and Venezuelan riders to finish second and move into third place in the overall standings heading into the last three events tomorrow.
In the men’s omnium, Remi Pelletier-Roy had a stellar day climbing from eighth place after yesterday’s races, to finish in third place and earn a bronze medal. Sitting in fourth place overall heading into the points race, he went on to win multiple intermediate sprints to secure enough points to take the bronze medal.
Canada now has 13 medals at this important Rio 2016 Olympic Qualifying competition.
