SILVER MEDAL FOR CANADIANS AT UCI TRACK WORLD CUP IN NEW ZEALAND
Canada narrowly loses the gold medal by just 0.054s, remains World Cup Leaders
(Ottawa, ON – December 05, 2015) The Canadians won the silver medal in the women team pursuit at the 2016 UCI Track Cycling in Cambridge, New Zealand, involved in an intense dual with the 2015 World Champions from Australia for the top podium spot.
The Canadian team, represented by Jasmin Glaesser, Kirsti Lay, Stephanie Roorda and Annie Foreman-Mackey, easily won its first-round dual against their southern neighbours, taking the CAN-USA showdown by six seconds to advance to the ultimate race.
Facing the Australians in the gold medal round, the opponents took the early lead, but not far behind followed the Canadians, who shuffled their roster by replacing Roorda and Foreman-Mackay with Laura Brown and Allison Beveridge. At the second split, Canada had come back to lead with a slight margin. But the Australians, the reigning World Champions in the event, bounced back and took control of the race in the last two kilometers to take the gold medal.
The dual was extremely tight between the two rivals. Australia won with a time of 4:18.213, while Canadians crossed the finish line at 4:18.267, just 0.054s behind.
Canada remains the UCI World Cup Leaders in the women team pursuit entering the last UCI Track World Cup slated for January 15-17 in Hong Kong.
Allison Beveridge, who raced the gold medal round in the Women Team Pursuit, was also in action in the women’s omnium. She finished third in the scratch race, fourth in the individual pursuit, and fifth in the elimination race. At the halfway mark of the six-race event, Beveridge is sitting fourth in the overall standings. Remi Pelletier-Roy sits in 16th position of the men’s omnium after three races.
In the sprint events, Kate O’Brien posted her career World Cup result with a 13th place, immediately followed by teammate Monique Sullivan in 14th. Both Canadians advanced the first round, but lost their opening dual.
Notably for O’Brien, the result is quite remarkable as this race was only her second World Cup race in the individual sprint, improving her result from 25th in Cali to 13th in New Zealand. The former bobsledder posted a personal best of 11.025s in the 200m qualifiers, lowering her best mark by 0.002s previously set at the Pan-American Games in Toronto. This was her World Cup debut in the first round, facing an opponent.
The men raced the keirin, and Hugo Barrette took 13th place.
