Calgary cyclists golden on a big day

Canada punctuated the first week of competition at the Pan Am Games by reaching, then surpassing the 100-medal mark on Friday.

Thanks to Calgarians Monique Sullivan and Allison Beveridge, the Canadians continued their impressive showing at the Cisco Pan Am Velodrome, adding to the medal haul with a gold in the women’s pursuit and a gold in the women’s keirin final.

The team of Beveridge, Vancouver’s Laura Brown, Jasmin Glaesser, of Coquitlam, B.C., and Kirsti Lay, of Medicine Hat, Alta., finished the race in a Pan Am record time of four minutes 19.664 seconds in the final to edge the United States. The U.S. earned the silver in 4:26.426 while Mexico beat out Colombia to capture the bronze medal.

Glaesser said the Canadians rode a technically sound final race.

“I think in qualifying we started a little bit quick and maybe weren’t in control of the back half of the race,” she said. “Our plan was to settle the first six laps and then to really finish strong and I think we showed that.

“We really rode within our abilities in the first half and then the second part of the race took care of itself.”

Sullivan held off hard-charging Cuban Lisandra Guerra to capture the women’s keirin final, winning by roughly one tire length. Colombia’s Juliana Gaviria Rendon captured the bronze.

Canada stood in second place in the overall medal total with 110, four back of the U.S., after Friday’s events. Canadians had earned 45 gold, 38 silver and 27 bronze.

In men’s swimming, Calgary’s Russell wood finished fourth in the 100-metre backstroke final, clocking in at 54.30 seconds.

The Canadian women’s squash team didn’t fare as well as their track cycling counterparts, settling for silver with a loss to the Americans. The U.S. won the first two matches in the best-of-three final to take the gold.

Olivia Blatchford opened with an 11-4, 12-10, 11-8 victory over Hollie Naughton of Mississauga, Ont., and Amanda Sobhy secured the team victory with an 11-3, 11-2, 11-8 win over Samantha Cornett of Deep River, Ont.

“We thought we could do it,” Naughton said.

“We knew it would take a couple hard matches and it would be close. But we did think it was doable but it was going to be tough. And it proved to be a bit tougher than we thought.”

Canada’s night at the pool got off to a good start with West Vancouver, B.C., native Emily Overholt taking gold in the 400-metre freestyle, one night after a disqualification took first place away from her in the 400 individual medley.

Overholt finished the freestyle race in a Pan Am record time of 4:08.42 seconds. Venezuela’s Andreina Pinto earned silver in 4:08.67 while American Gillian Ryan placed third in 4:09.46.

Shortly after Overholt’s win, Victoria’s Ryan Cochrane cruised to gold in the men’s 400 freestyle by a margin of over a second. Cochrane set a Pan Am record in finishing the race in 3:48.29.

In women’s wrestling, Braxton Stone-Papadopoulos of Pickering, Ont., defeated Cuba’s Katerina Vidiaux 7-3 to win gold in 63-kilogram freestyle.

Earlier in the day, Canadian Michel Dion won bronze in the men’s 50-metre rifle prone. Brazil’s Cassio Rippel took gold while American Michael McPhail placed second.

The Canadian women’s basketball team is 2-0 in preliminary play after downing Argentina 73-58. Miranda Ayim and Tamara Tatham scored 12 points apiece.

We really rode within our abilities in the first half and then the second part of the race took care of itself.