CANADA WINS THREE GOLDS IN SPEED BOAT

The dominance demonstrated in the lagoon allowed the Canadian delegation to surpass the United States in the discipline’s historic medal table and position itself in second place, only behind Cuba.

With a good hierarchy, Team Canada dominated the Laguna Grande of San Pedro de la Paz during the first day of the canoe sprint finals and obtained three gold medals in five contested finals.

In the first final of the morning, Canadian Michelle Russell dominated the K1 500m category from start to finish and won the gold medal with a time of 1:51.25, very little below the 1:52.01 obtained by the Argentine Brenda Rojas who won the silver. The Mexican Beatriz Briones, who defended the gold medal obtained in this modality in Lima 2019, ended up winning the bronze medal with a time of 1:53.07.

“It’s great. It’s our last race of the season, so it was a good opportunity to put that last exclamation point. The lagoon is great, I didn’t get to see much, but now I “I’m going to be able to explore it. I’m going to take a break and then start training again,” said Michelle Russell.

With today’s result, the Halifax native added his fourth medal at the Pan American Games level after the gold (K4 500m) and two silvers (K1 200m and K1 500m) obtained at Toronto 2015 .

A few minutes later, the kayak piloted by Canadians Ian Gaudet and Simon McTavish arrived in first position with a time of 1:30.45 and obtained the gold medal in the K2 500m category. The always favorite and experienced Gonzalo Lo Moro and Agustín Vernice of Argentina, won the silver medal with a time of 1:31.25, while the Americans Jonas Ecker and Aaron Small walked away with the bronze medal after managing to time 1:31.48.

“It was a really fun race. We are a brand new team. “We’ve been training together for about a month, so to achieve our best performance and win gold for Canada is beyond our dreams,” said Ian Gaudet.

To continue the Canadian domination, the duo of John Spence and Alix Plomteux won the gold medal in the C2 500m category with a time of 1:42.12, almost a second less than the 1:43.52 achieved by the Brazilians Evandilson Avelar and Filipe Santana, who won silver. To close the podium, José Pelier and Javier Requeiro of Cuba came away with the bronze medal after a time of 1:43.66.

“We are very proud of the whole team. I think that’s part of what we’ve done in the past and throughout this year, all the training we’ve done. It shows that we don’t give up and that we work hard all year long, so it’s great to have a lot of medals today,” commented Alix Plomteux.

The last test of the day was for Mexico. The quartet composed of Karina Alanis, Brenda Gutiérrez, Beatriz Briones and Maricela Montemayor obtained the gold medal in the K4-500 category with a time of 1:34.73. For its part, Canada won silver with a time of 1:35.91 and Argentina won bronze with a time of 1:36.79.

With today’s results, Canada managed to surpass the United States in the overall medal table in the discipline since Indianapolis 1987, adding 29 gold medals, one more than the American team, which has 28 .

THE WORLD CHAMPION IS CROWNED IN SANTIAGO 2023

To end Canada’s reign at the time, Cuban and current canoe world champion Yarileidis Cirilo won gold in the C1 200m category with a time of 45.87. For her part, repeating her participation in Lima 2019, María José Mailliard won the silver medal with a time of 46.18, while the Canadian Sophia Jensen won the bronze medal with a time of 46.87.

“It’s beautiful. This is the goal I set for myself this year and to achieve it now is something phenomenal for me. Every competition is won in training and this year I prepared very hard. Now at Paris 2024, I hope to give my best and surpass my participation in Tokyo,” said Cirilo.

With this result, the young Caribbean, aged only 21 and current champion of the Duisburg 2023 Canoe World Cup, obtained what is the first medal of her career at the Pan American Games level.

Written by Vicente Quiñones