April 25, 2012 (Guatemala City, Guatemala) – Team Canada’s Juniors had a wonderful day at the track events on Day #3 at the UCI Junior Pan American Championships in Guatemala. The team started the day with an update from late on Tuesday as the officials had made a mistake in the women’s Individual Pursuit – both timing and scoring.

After several heated discussions, the commissaries looked at the facts and awarded the silver medal to Columbia and Canada’s Ariane Bonhomme (Ottawa) was placed in the bronze position. This elevated Sarah Mason (London) to 4th in the official overall finishing order.

In today’s race action Ariane and Sarah were partnered with Kinley Gibson (Edmonton) to combine for a 1st place qualifying effort in the women’s Team Pursuit over 3km.  The newly formed team stopped the clock in 3:52 and were on top of the results page and went into the gold medal round against the very tough Mexican team.

The plan was to ride on a schedule that was faster than our qualifying time and put pressure on the team from Mexico. Early in the race for GOLD, the Mexican team put their top pursuiter on the front for four laps and established a 3-second lead on our team.  This advantage continued until the end of the race with our women’s team working hard together and finishing two seconds faster than our qualifying time.

After the race just before the silver medal was presented Kinley Gibson commented, “The team dynamic throughout our racing has been very strong. Everyone is very supportive, and we have all been working towards this podium finish. The team was at 110% for the entire race, we are in this for the long term, and we are taking it one day at a time.”  Kinley is preparing for the women’s Omnium that begins on Thursday morning.

Canada was very close to a medal in the women’s Points race where Bailin Xie (Ottawa) and Ariane Bonhomme (Ottawa), were consistently on the front attacking and mixing up the race.  In the end, a rider from the Columbian team lapped the field and took home the gold. Bonhomme finished a solid 4th with Xie scoring two points and finishing 7th.

The men in their Points race were not as fortunate, Marc-Antoine Noel and Will Simonds both gave it their all.  At the half way sprint for points, five riders came together and Simonds was in the middle of a big crash that took out the top-ranked Columbian riders. Although Simonds was badly scrapped he got back on his bike and soldiered on in an attempt to finish the race. At 20 laps later the pain was too much for the young rider from London and Simonds had to withdraw after a gritty performance.

The last session of the day featured the women’s Sprint. Three Canadians were entered but Xie and Kirsten Sears failed to qualify for the rounds. Audrey Labrie (Montreal) qualified 5th and was against a very cagey Guatemalan who had the home town cheering her on. Labrie lost both races in round #1 of the tournament and finished in 8th place overall at the end of the day.

The Canadians are back in the hunt for medals on Thursday in the men’s and women’s Omnium (Adian Caves & Kinley Gibson), men’s Keirin (Eric MacDonald and Joakim Albert), women’s Keirin (Sarah Mason and Audrey Labrie)…

Good luck to all the Canadians.

Results

Women Team Pursuit

Qualifications

1. Canada 3:52.991
Kinley Gibson
Ariane Bonhomme
Sarah Mason

2. Mexico 3:56.997
Eunice Valera
Sara Ferrara
BrendaVillareal

3. Chile 4:00.555
Valentina Monsalve
Aranza Villalon
JavieraReyes

Final
1. Mexico 3:46.749
Eunice Valera
Sara Ferrara
BrendaVillareal

2. Canada 3:51.333
Kinley Gibson
Ariane Bonhomme
Sarah Mason

3. Chile
Valentina Monsalve 4:00.555
Aranza Villalon
JavieraReyes

Women’s Sprint 200m

Qualifications
1. Martha Bayona (Colombia) 11.866
2. Angy Guzmán (Colombia) 12.308
3. Gabriela Gómez (Brazil) 12.365
4. Paula Guillén (Guatemala) 12.394
5. Audrey Labrie (Canada) 12.549  
6. Fernanda Padilla (Mexico) 12.687
7. Aline Tamez (Mexico) 12.853
8. Claudia Romero (Guatemala) 13.068
9. Ruth Ramos (Ecuador) 13.088
10. Wellyda Santos (Brazil) 13.129
11. Bailin Xie (Canada) 13.348  
12. Kristen Sears (Canada 13.455
13. Jodi Goodridge (Trinidad & Tobago) 13.536
14. Aziza Browne (Trinidad & Tobago) 13.601

Top 8 riders advance to the final.

Final

Heat 1
1. Martha Bayona (Colombia)
2. Claudia Romero (Guatemala)

Heat 2
1. Angy Guzmán (Colombia)
2. Aline Tamez (Mexico)

Heat 3
1. Gabriela Gómez (Brazil)
2. Fernanda Padilla (Mexico)

Heat 4
1. Paula Guillén (Guatemala)
2. Audrey Labrie (Canada)

Final 5-8
5. Aline Tamez (Mexico)
6. Fernanda Padilla (Mexico)
7. Claudia Romero (Guatemala)
8. Audrey Labrie (Canada)

Women’s Points Race  Final

1. Jessica Parra (Colombia) 58 pts
2. Brenda Villareal (Mexico) 16 (-1 lap)
3. Valentina Monsalve (Chile) 16 (-1 lap)
4. Miryan Nuñez (Ecuador) 6 (-1 lap)
5. Ariane Bonhomme (Canada) 6 (-1 lap)
6. Alexa Perez (Mexico) 2 (-1 lap)
7. Xie Bailin (Canada) 2 (-1 lap)
8. Javiera Reyes (Chile) 1 (-1 lap)
9. Cindy Dinatale (Argentina) -19 (-1 lap)

Men’s Points Race Final

1. Sebastian M. Trillini (Argentina) 41 pts
2. Alberto Covarrubias (Mexico) 17 (-1 lap)
3. Jose Rodriguez (Chile) 15 (-1 lap)
4. Joao Ahumada (Chile) 14 (-1 lap)
5. Douglas Rigeiro (Brazil) 11 (-1 lap)
6. Leonardo Torres (Venezuela) 5 (-1 lap)
7. Romeo Quicibal (Guatemala) 3 (-1 lap)
8. Luis Gomez (Venezuela) 3 (-1 lap)
9. Rodrigo Diaz (Peru) 2 (-1 lap)
10. Elvis Reyes (Dominican Republic) 1 (-1 lap)