July 20, 2007 (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) – Canada’s Cam MacKinnon won his first international Games medal taking the silver in the men’s keirin at the Barra Velodrome on the final day of the track competitions at the 2007 Pan Am Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Canada’s keirin champ in 2005 and 2006 was elated with his win and we caught up with MacKinnon in Rio.

“I’m really happy winning the silver medal in the keirin at these Games,” said MacKinnon, “For sure I wanted the top spot on the podium at the Pan Ams, but the silver is great.”

We asked MacKinnon to describe how the race unfolded. “It was aggressive from the start and there was lots of action at the front,” MacKinnon went on. “I like racing like this but near the end on the last lap the Columbian rider (winner Leonardo Narvaez Romero) passed me illegally and should have been relegated. I tried to chase him down and almost caught him for the gold, but I ran out of track at the finish and took the silver. All of the teams protested after the race but there was insufficient video footage for the officials to make a ruling against him.”

With two National keirin titles under his belt is Mackinnon going for a third? “Yes, I’m focused on winning another keirin title at the Track Nationals in September. From here I’ll head to Seattle for an FSA Grand Prix, lots of other Canadians will be there as well. From there it’s on to the Lehigh Valley Velodrome in Trexlertown, Pennsylvania, then the Track Nationals and soon after the Track World Cup season will begin.”

Mackinnon is from Calgary but has been living in Burnaby and training at the velodrome there with Richard Wooles, BC Provincial Coach and we asked how things are going. “It’s going really well and the training is very different from what I’ve doing — it’s very specific for each event and I like it. It’s a good formula, my style and it’s working for me,” Mackinnon explained. “There’s a community of riders out there as well which is great so there’s lots of opportunity to train with other top riders like Zach Bell. Richard Wooles is a hands-on coach, he’s very accessible and he’s having a really good influence on what’s happening out there. Burnaby could become the center for track cycling in Canada,” he added.

So how did it feel to be on the podium winning his first international Games medal. “For sure it felt pretty good. I wished they were playing Canada’s national anthem but there are more opportunities ahead.”

Congratulations Cam and best of luck winning more Games medals.