Canadian Women Team Pursuit Win Bronze Medal By Relying On Each Other

RIO DE JANEIRO — Teamwork on the velodrome track has brought home another medal for Canada's Olympic women.

 

Canada defeated New Zealand on Saturday to win a bronze medal in women's cycling team pursuit at the Rio Olympics.

 

Montreal's Kirsti Lay, Calgary's Allison Beveridge, Georgia Simmerling of West Vancouver, B.C., and Jasmin Glaesser of Vancouver finished in four minutes 14.627 seconds. New Zealand settled for fourth place after finishing nearly four seconds behind in 4:18.459.

 

"I'm so thankful to be here with these four amazing riders," Simmerling said. "I'm just so speechless."

 

Lay — who won silver at the worlds in March with Simmerling, Glaesser and Beveridge — was inserted back into the group in place of Vancouver's Laura Brown, who had competed with the team earlier this week.

 

"We just stayed calm and it showed," said head coach Craig Griffin. "We got rolling nicely. When you come to race day, you don't change anything, you just do what you know.

 

"We've done it so many times, it was just like another training run."

 

Canada had 11 medals heading into Saturday's late events, all won by women.

 

The Canadian pursuit team came to Brazil with high hopes after winning bronze at the 2012 London Games and earning podium spots at the last four world championships. But an impressive British team defeated Canada in world-record time (4:12.152) in the morning race to advance to the final against the United States. The Brits were even faster in the final, taking gold in 4:10.236 as the Americans took silver in 4:12.454.

 

While athletes have been moved in and out of the Canadian lineup like chess pieces since London — Glaesser is the only remaining competitor from 2012 to suit up in Rio — the results have stayed fairly consistent.

 

Simmerling, meanwhile, is the first Canadian athlete to compete in three different sports at three separate Olympics. She raced for Canada in alpine skiing at the Vancouver Games six years ago before taking up ski cross ahead of Sochi in 2014.

 

Earlier Saturday, star sprinter Andre De Grasse of Markham, Ont., cruised to the semifinals of the men's 100 metres at the Rio Olympics. He was slow out of the blocks but turned it on in the final 50 metres to finish first in his heat in a time of 10.04 seconds.

 

The semifinals and final are set for Sunday night. Defending champion Usain Bolt of Jamaica ran 10.07 to win his heat. American Justin Gatlin had the fastest qualifying time at 10.01. De Grasse's time was third-best overall.

 

De Grasse will be the lone Canadian in the semis after Toronto's Aaron Brown (10.24) and Calgary's Akeem Haynes (10.22) failed to advance.

 

Divers Jennifer Abel and Pamela Ware both advanced to the finals of the individual three-metre springboard. Abel, from Laval, Que., finished third overall with 343.45 points while Ware, from Greenfield Park, Que., placed ninth with 318.25.

 

The top 12 divers of 18 advanced to Sunday's final. China's Tingmao Shi led the field with 385 points. Zi He, also of China, was second with 364.05.

 

Also, the Canadian women's rowing eight had a blistering start but faded down the stretch en route to a fifth-place finish.

 

The United States won gold in six minutes 1.49 seconds while Britain was second in 6:03.98 and Romania took bronze in 6:04.10.

 

Canada, which comprises Victoria's Caileigh Filmer, Susanne Grainger of London, Ont., Natalie Mastracci of Thorold, Ont., Lisa Roman of Langley, B.C., Cristy Nurse of Georgetown, Ont., Christine Roper — a native of Jamaica who now makes her home in Canada — Antje von Seydlitz of Smithers, B.C., and Lauren Wilkinson of North Vancouver, B.C., along with veteran coxswain Lesley Thompson-Willie of London, led through the first 1,000 metres but couldn't hold off the powerhouse Americans in the second half. They ended up with a time of 6:06.04.

 

In beach volleyball, the undefeated duo Sarah Pavan and Heathen Bansley advanced to the women's quarter-finals with a 2-0 win over fellow Canadians Jamie Broder and Kristina Valjas 2-0.

 

In badminton, Michelle Li of Markham, Ont., won her first group stage match 2-0 over Laura Sarosi of Hungary, and Calgary's Martin Giuffre improved to 1-1 with a 2-1 win over Portugal's Pedro Martins.