July 19, 2015 (Milton, ON) – The final day of racing on the track at the Cisco Pan Am Velodrome was historic as Monique Sullivan from Calgary, Alberta, became the first Canadian to win three golds at the Pan Am Games.

Fans were on the edge of their seats as Sullivan’s third gold came in the Women’s Sprint against teammate Kate O’Brien for a unique Match Sprint final that saw O’Brien claim the silver.

Both riders were in a class of their own as Sullivan dispatched Mexico’s Luz Gaxiola in two straight in the Semi-finals. O’Brien had some difficulty with Juliana Gaviria Rendon (COL), the defending Games silver medalist, and needed the decider to advance to the gold final.

In the bronze final Gaviria took Gaxiola in two straight while the electricity amped up for the Sullivan vs O’Brien finale that raised the bar even higher for Team Canada with gold and silver added the overall medal haul.

More hardware came Canada’s way when the Men’s Team Pursuit squad rallied to claim the bronze in a nail-biter against Venezuela. For the bronze-medal ride, Ed “Real Deal” Veal replaced Adam Jamieson, as the Canucks got off to a slow start.

But by the half way point they were leading and never looked back as they took the boards by storm with a superb 4:06.005 while Colombia won the gold over Argentina with a winning time of 4:03.310.

Next up was Canada’s Sprint gold medalist, Hugo Barrette, taking on all comers in the men’s Keirin, with a glint in his eye and the chance to win his third gold as well and join Sullivan in an elite winner’s circle.

In both heats, the officials had some difficulty with the starting gun not going off needing restarts. After the malfunctions were corrected, Colombian sprinter Fabian Puerta Zapata, Hersony Canelon Vera (VEN) and Jair Tjon En Fa (SUR) came across the line in that order to advance to the final.

In the second heat, Barrette got right on the moto with Njisane Phillips (TTO) on his wheel as Matt Baranoski (USA) surged to the front. Barrette was the first to counter with less than a lap to go taking the win.

In the final Barrette got boxed in and settled for the bronze as Puerta won the gold and Canelon the silver. While expectations were high it was still a fine day at the office, and three Pan Am medals for the rider who hails from the Magdalen Islands, a small archipelago in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, situated about 105 km north of Prince Edward Island.

The final event and medal performance for Canada was delivered by B.C.’s Jasmin Glaesser who raced a classy Omnium to bring home the silver against American Sara Hammer, a two-time Olympic silver medalist and the current Individual Pursuit record holder, who won the gold.

In the morning session, Glaesser was 7th in the 500m TT and third in the Flying Lap. This put her third overall with 173 points vs Hammer’s 189, coming into the final event, the Points Race, which concluded the track races of the Games.

Glaesser rode the 100-lap race with panache moving into second at the half way point. She attacked taking more points along the way but the veteran Hammer took the final sprint to claim the gold with Glaesser capturing the silver capping off a brilliant track campaign for Team Canada.

With 9G, 3S, 2B totalling 14 cycling medals so far at the Pan Am Games it’s a record performance and a real boost for the overall program that augurs well for the athletes and the team as a whole bringing new meaning to #canuckup for the Hop on Canada campaign. With 9 golds we believe cycling has contributed the highest number of golds against all sports to Canada’s total medal count so far –

Results and more photos here.