October 9, 2010 (New Delhi, India) – On the last day of competition at the velodrome, Canada was looking to compete with the Australians at the track in cycling, and used each other as inspiration to win two bronze medals. At the last two individual opportunities for medals in track, Canadians had entries in both the women’s individual pursuit and the men’s scratch race.

First up, Tara Whitten of Edmonton competed in the 3,000m individual pursuit. The individual pursuit event has a qualifying round whereby the top two times race in the final gold medal round, and the 3rd and 4th fastest times race for bronze, and so on. Each rider starts on each side of the track and attempts to catch the other or cross the finish line with the best time.

World Champion Whitten competed against Wendy Houvenaghel of Northern Ireland, a World and Olympic silver medallist. Whitten rode strong and steady and qualified to compete for a bronze medal with a time of 3:36.548. The top qualifying time was 3:32.114 posted by Alison Shanks of New Zealand.

In the bronze medal final, Whitten competed against Jamie Nielson of New Zealand. Whitten, who loves the track events most, won bronze with a time of 3:35.810. The gold medal was won by Alison Shanks of New Zealand with a time of 3:28.00.

Whiten was pleased with the bronze as she has been training hardest for the endurance races, and thinks her cross country skiing background could have trained her well. “I am relatively new to cycling, and I think that cross country skiing gave me an edge,” said Whitten. I am tired but happy, and looking forward to a day off before the road events.”

At the last track race in Delhi, the 80 lap men’s scratch race, Zach Bell (Watson Lake, YK), rode a strategic race and won bronze. The men’s scratch race is an endurance race covering 20 km. Bell who had had some challenges earlier in the week in the men’s points race, rallied to bounce back and win bronze behind Michael Freiberg and Cameron Meyer of Australia.

“Going into it, I knew that it would be a tough fight to stay with the Aussies, it was tooth and nail,” said Bell. It is tough to be in a scratch race with no other Canadians, I knew with the lessons learned in the points race and a little bit of luck, I had a good chance to medal.”

At the end of both races, both Whitten and Bell talked of the support they received from their coaches and the other team members. “I have been inspired by the way Tara has been riding,” said Bell, as a team, we take turns inspiring each other and being there for each other.

With the track events done, both riders will compete in the road race and time trials. Whiten and Bell still has two races left here in Delhi, and perhaps more opportunities to support each other’s continued success.

Results and more photos here.