Canada Wins Early Gold at Pan Am Games

The women’s kayaking crew gave Canada the start it wanted on the first full day of competition.

Her official time of 1:27:13 was seven seconds faster than Pendrel, a native of Harvey Station, N.B., who won gold at the 2007 Rio Games.

“I can’t hear anything, ‘” Batty said.

“I can’t find the words to describe how it feels to win gold, in the Pan Am Games, in Toronto, on home soil, the very first medal. I can’t”.

Canadian synchronized swimmers Jacqueline Simoneau and Karine Thomas Chilean triathlete Barbara Riveros and Mexican divers Rommel Pacheco and Paola Espinosa earned direct qualifying spots into next year’s Rio Olympics as a bonus for winning gold in their events.

Canada was the top-ranked team in the six-team women’s Pan Am competition, having finishing second in the Women’s Seven Series last season.

“That’s as ideal a day as you can get in a BMX race”, Nyhaug said.

“Ultimately we were going to have to fight it out at some stage and we’re happy to do that in the semifinal, quarter-final or final”. “I knew all week that I could do it. To come out on top is unbelievable”.

“It’s not the end of us yet”, said Canada’s Phil Mack.

“They know each other really well”, said high-performance director Jacques Landry.

“I was just really confident and I was just telling myself that, no matter what, you have to nail the entry”, she said.

Canadian athletes raked in 16 medals, including six gold, in Sunday’s Pan Am action.

In rugby sevens, the Canadian women were flawless but the men stumbled late.

The Canadian women, who beat the Americans 34-12 earlier in the tournament, dominated the two-day competition, running up a 6-0 record and outscoring their opponents 285-19 to underline their Olympic ambitions. The men seemed destined to join them, winning their first two games before dropping a scrappy 21-7 decision to Argentina in the day’s finale.

They beat the Americans 55-7 Sunday night in front of the largest Canadian crowd ever gathered for a rugby sevens game.

Janine Beckie and Shelina Zadorsky each scored twice and Emma Fletcher added the fifth goal. A Colombian woman carried off any injured teammate as she left the field after her final game of the day. There are 1.4 million available for the Pan Am and Parapan Am Games.