Olympic hopefuls shine at Canadian Track Cycling Championships

The 2015 Canadian Track Cycling Championships began on Wednesday at the Mattamy National Cycling Centre in Milton, Ont., with the team sprint, team pursuit, and para-cycling time trial events.
 
Monique Sullivan and Kate O'Brien, who captured gold at the Pan Am Games in Toronto in July, won the Canadian Championships title in the women's team sprint event, successfully defending their 2014 title.

The duo posted a time of 34.858s in the finals. They completed the course more than two seconds faster than their closest rivals, Lizanne Wilmont, and Jamie Gilgen.

Sullivan and O'Brien will now represent Canada at the upcoming UCI World Cup Series, where they will have a chance to qualify Canada for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio next summer.
 
In the men's sprint, the composite team comprised of Evan Carey, Joe Veloce, and Hugo Barrette easily finished at the top of the podium.

The team made of Chris Singleton, Joel Archambault, and Misha Partridge came in second place, crossing the finish line just under four seconds after the 2015 Pan Am Games Gold medallists.
 
Team West Coast, consisting of Laura Brown Stephanie Roorda, Jasmin Glaesser and ski-cross convert Georgia Simmerling coasted to the victory in the women's team pursuit.
 
The men's team pursuit squad, comprised of Ontario's Ed Veal, Ryan Roth, Sean MacKinnon, and Aidan Caves earned gold with a time of 4:12.446. 
 
In Para-cycling competition, Daniel Chalifour and pilot Jean-Michel Lachance won the gold medal in combined tandem racing, reaching 96.64% of the National Team Standards in the process.
 
In the C class, Marie-Claude Molnar took the top spot in the Women's race with a time of 43.553s over 500 metres of racing, averaging speeds of 41km/h throughout her race.