With two golds and one silver, the teams from Mexico and Canada dominated the first competition date of the Pan American Elite Track Cycling Championship, which began this Wednesday at the new Vicente Alejo Chancay velodrome in San Juan, Argentina.
The Mexicans climbed to the top of the podium in the team sprint, ahead of the Canadian team, while the United States finished third. The trio of Jessica Salazar, Yuli Verdugo and Luz Gaxiola with a time of 47 seconds and 266 thousandths in the three laps of the 250-meter long track that the oval has, were the first monarchs.
Minutes later, Antonieta Gaxiola dominated the women’s scratch, beating the Brazilian Wellyda Dos Santos Rodríguez in the sprint, while the American Gulick Colleen contributed the second bronze for her delegation.
For its part, Canada fulfilled its forecasts, led by the 2022 world champion, the young Bibic Dylan, who demonstrated his skills as a sprinter in the final sprint in San Juan, where he left the Mexican Fernando breathless for second and third place. Nava and the American Koontz Grant, respectively.
The other Canadian crown came after the Canada-Trinidad and Tobago confrontation in the team sprint, in the men’s sector, won by the former with a time of 43 seconds and 384 thousandths, recorded by James Hedgcock, Tyler Rorke and Nick Wammes. Colombia scored in the third seat of the podium.
With these results, team speed completed the qualifiers for the Pan American Games in Santiago de Chile. In the case of the women’s, Mexico, the United States and Argentina will accompany Canada, Colombia and the Chilean hosts; while in the men’s section Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico and the United States reached their quotas for the continental contest in October-November.
The imposing oval of Pocito witnessed, for the first time, a contest of such enormous magnitude for the people of San Juan. On the first day of competition -which will last until Sunday- the strength of all the delegations could be seen, especially Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela and the United States.
In addition, prior to the finals, the opening ceremony of the Pan American was held, where it was announced that the Vicente Alejo Chancay velodrome will be the UCI Satellite Development Center, which means that cyclists from all over the continent will come to San Juan to train and form.
In sports, the activity began in the morning with the qualifying rounds, to have the finals in the afternoon.
This Thursday the activity will begin at 11 a.m., it will have a break from 12:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., to resume with the Team Pursuit, Speed, Keirin, and Elimination finals.