Canada added a sixth medal to its tally on Friday, Day 3 of the Pan Am Track Championships, in Aguascalientes, Mexico, when Jay Lamoureux (Victoria, BC) won the silver medal in the Men’s Individual Pursuit. Stefan Ritter of Edmonton set his second Junior world record of the event in the Men’s Sprint qualifying. The Pan Am Championships are the continental championships, and provide valuable points for obtaining starting positions at the world championships.
Lamoureux qualified first with the fastest time of the day, and rode the gold medal final against Eduardo Estrada of Colombia. In the final, Lamoureux’s time of four minutes and 16.950 seconds was 0.783 seconds behind Estrada. Adam Jamieson (Barrie, ON) finished tenth in 4:26.157.
In Men’s Sprint qualifying, Ritter finished fifth overall, with a time of 9.738 seconds for the Flying 200 metre Time Trial, a new Junior world record, to go with the 1000 metre world record he set a day earlier. Joel Archambault (Sainte-Christine, QC) qualified eighth and Patrice Pivin (Windsor, QC) was 16th. Pivin was knocked out of competition in the following round, while Ritter and Archambault have moved on to quarterfinal action for Saturday.
“It’s definitely very exciting and a huge honour to break the world record,” said Ritter. “During the windup for the 200 my legs felt a little flat, but coming down the banking I felt really good. It just goes to show that your perception doesn’t always let you know how good you are feeling. Tomorrow’s the quarterfinals, and hopefully the semi’s and then the final.”
After the first three events of the Men’s Omnium, Canadian national champion Aidan Caves (Vancouver, BC) leads with a perfect record of three wins in the Scratch Race, Individual Pursuit and Elimination. Caves leads the standings going into Saturday’s final three events with 120 points, followed by Facundo Olaf Crisafulli of Argentina and Julio Padilla of Guatemala, both at 106 points.
“The goal today was three top rides and that’s what I came away with,” said Caves. “Not a bad start to the Omnium, for sure.”
Two Canadians also raced in the Points Race, with Jamieson finishing eighth and Ed Veal (Queensville, ON) tenth.
The Pan Am Championships continue through Sunday.
