April 26, 2012 (Guatemala City, Guatemala) – Day 4 in Guatemala at the Junior Pan Am Championships saw Canada on the podium for the third time. Joakim Albert and Eric MacDonald were entered in the Keirin competition and both riders wanted to demonstrate their speed and tactics to the other countries.

Albert advanced through to round 2 with a victory in his 1st heat of the day.  MacDonald had a much tougher time as he drew two sprint medalists in his first heat. As planned Eric rode the race from the front after a perfect acceleration on the wheel of the motorbike that paces the riders in the Keirin.  With 200m to go Eric was swarmed by the top sprints at the meet and had to settle for 5th.

This meant MacDonald had to go to the second chance round where again he stayed on the motor and led the race until the last 1/2 lap but was overtaken by two riders and was eliminated from the tournament. “What a cool experience, now that I know what to expect from these races….. bring on more competitions,” commented MacDonald.

Joakim was preparing for the 2nd round of the Kierin and the team laid out a plan, that if executed, would advance the young Canadian to the finals for a medal. At the start Albert, jumped on the pacer and held a very strong position until the pacer exited the track…. this meant 600m of elbow-to-elbow action. Albert accelerated as we had talked about, however the riders coming over the top were just a little quicker.

Albert was trapped for about 50m when he accelerated through a small hole left by a Columbian who had just moved 6″ outside of the sprinter lane. That was the difference in the round as Albert launched an attack to win Round 2 and advance to the medal round later in the day.

In the final, Albert stayed on the motor as planned. With the race about to explode, the motorbike exited the track and Albert accelerated to match the speed of the other riders.  With one lap to go the field bunched together and Albert was shuffled to 4th. Down the back stretch he again went through a hole only big enough for his handle bars… the move worked and Joakim Albert scored Canada’s third medal of the Championships.

In other racing:

The Men’s and Women’s Omnium (Day 1) started with three events on tap – Flying Lap, Points Race, Elimination (Miss & Out).   Adian Caves and Kinley Gibson are Team Canada’s entries in the gruelling Omnium competition.

In the opening event the Flying Lap, both Caves (14.00) and Gibson (15.94) were leading the competition with the fastest laps of the day.  The next event was the 25km Points race for the boys and 10km for the girls. Caves had a good start and was scoring points throughout the race.

Knowing he had to win the last sprint to move up the ladder, he attacked the bunch and took the five remaining points in the last sprint. This moved him to 8th in the final standings. Gibson had another solid performance in her points race that saw the top three riders battle all race long. In the end she finished in 3rd position and held on to the overall lead.

The last event was the Elimination and officials decided this race as Caves was eliminated in error early in the competition, only to be reinstated after a little discussion with race officials (who love the Canadian team at this point). The extra effort to get back into the race took it’s toll and Caves was on of four riders eliminated – official results are yet to be posted.  Gibson again rode her own race and finshed third in the Elimination race for women and is currently third overall.

The last day of Track competition will see many Canadians in race action – Omnium finishes with Adian Caves and Kinley Gibson, Men’s Kilo with Joakim Albert and Vincent DeHaitre, the Women’s Scratch race with Bailin Xie and Sarah Mason, the Women’s Keirin featuring Audrey Labrie and Sarah Mason, and the Men’s Madison – results below.

Results

Men’s Keirin

Final 1-6

1. Edgar Ismael Verdugo (Mexico)
2. Santigo Ramirez (Colombia)
3. Joakim Albert (Canada)
4. Julian Beccaglia (Argentina)
5. Kacio Freitas (Brazil)
6. Matias Ibanez (Uruguay)

Final 7-12

7. Oliver Valenzuela (Mexico)
8. Chistopher Samaniego (Ecuador)
9. Renzo Amoroso (Argentina)
10. Jose Zapata (Chile)
11. Juan David Gutierrez (Colombia)
12. Carlos Tejeda (Dominican Republic)

Women’s Omnium

Flying Lap
1. Kinley Gibson (Canada)    15.913
2. Sara Ferrara (Mexico)    16.052
3. Jessica Parra (Colombia)    16.333
4. Marlins Contreras (Venezuela)    16.437
5. Ana Belen Oña (Ecuador)    16.549
6. Francisca Yevenes (Chile)    17.771

Points Race
1. Jessica Parra (Colombia)    50 pts
2. Sara Ferrara (Mexico)    36 (-1 lap)
3. Kinley Gibson (Canada)    11 (-2 laps)
4. Francisca Yevenes (Chile)    5
5. Marlins Contreras (Venezuela)    1 (-2 laps)
6. Ana Belen Oña (Ecuador)    -19 (-2 laps)

Elimination
1. Sara Ferrara (Mexico)
2. Jessica Parra (Colombia)
3. Kinley Gibson (Canada)
4. Ana Belen Oña (Ecuador)
5. Marlins Contreras (Venezuela)
6. Francisca Yevenes (Chile)

Standings after 3 Rounds
1. Sara Ferrara (Mexico)    5 pts
2. Jessica Parra (Colombia)    6
3. Kinley Gibson (Canada)    7
4. Marlins Contreras (Venezuela)    14
5. Ana Belen Oña (Ecuador)    15
6. Francisca Yevenes (Chile)    16

Men’s Omnium

Flying Lap
1. Aidan Caves (Canada)    14.000
2. Jose Alfredo Aguirre (Mexico)    14.012
3. Sebastian Salina (Colombia)    14.123
4. Luis Gomez (Venezuela)    14.291
5. Luciano Zito (Argentina)    14.397
6. Romeo Quicibal (Guatemala)    14.469
7. Joao Ahumada (Chile)    14.507
8. Martim Albuquerque (Brazil)    14.553
9. Cristian Pita (Ecuador)    14.582
10. Akill Campbell (Trinidad & Tobago)    14.808
11. Anthony Arroyo (Costa Rica)    14.902
12. Renato Tapia (Peru)    14.969
13. Enmanuel Nuñez (Dominican Republic)    15.084

Points Race (25km)
1. Joao Ahumada (Chile)    33 pts
2. Jose Alfredo Aguirre (Mexico)    24 (-1 lap)
3. Renato Tapia (Peru)    18 (-1 lap)
4. Luis Gomez (Venezuela)    16 (-1 lap)
5. Romeo Quicibal (Guatemala)    11 (-1 lap)
6. Cristian Pita (Ecuador)    9 (-1 lap)
7. Luciano Zito (Argentina)    2 (-1 lap)
8. Aidan Caves (Canada)    -10 (-2 laps)
9. Sebastian Salina (Colombia)    -15 (-2 laps)
10. Martim Albuquerque (Brazil)    -18 (-2 laps)
11. Akill Campbell (Trinidad & Tobago)    -20 (-2 laps)
12. Enmanuel Nuñez (Dominican Republic)    -20 (-2 laps)
13. Anthony Arroyo (Costa Rica)    -40 (-3 laps)

Elimination
1. Jose Alfredo Aguirre (Mexico)
2. Luis Gomez (Venezuela)
3. Martim Albuquerque (Brazil)
4. Joao Ahumada (Chile)
5. Romeo Quicibal (Guatemala)
6. Cristian Pita (Ecuador)
7. Sebastian Salina (Colombia)
8. Enmanuel Nuñez (Dominican Republic)
9. Akill Campbell (Trinidad & Tobago)
10. Anthony Arroyo (Costa Rica)
11. Aidan Caves (Canada)
12. Renato Tapia (Peru)
13. Luciano Zito (Argentina)

Standings after 3 Rounds
1. Jose Alfredo Aguirre (Mexico)    5 pts
2. Luis Gomez (Venezuela)    10
3. Joao Ahumada (Chile)    12
4. Romeo Quicibal (Guatemala)    16
5. Sebastian Salina (Colombia)    19
6. Aidan Caves (Canada)    20
7. Martim Albuquerque (Brazil)    21
8. Cristian Pita (Ecuador)    21
9. Luciano Zito (Argentina)    25
10. Renato Tapia (Peru)    27
11. Akill Campbell (Trinidad & Tobago)    30
12. Enmanuel Nuñez (Dominican Republic)    33
13. Anthony Arroyo (Costa Rica)    34