Canada secures spots for 6 track cycling events at Rio Olympics

Canadian track cyclists received spots for six events at the upcoming Rio Olympics, Cycling Canada announced on Thursday.

Canada's strong showing at March's track world championships in London played a key role in securing the Olympic berths.

Canadians won two silver and two bronze medals during the tournament.

On the women's side, Canada clinched positions in all five track events.

Kate O'Brien and Monique Sullivan, both of Calgary, guaranteed Canada a Rio spot in the team sprint event after beating their Continental rivals (Colombia and Venezuela) at the world championships.

"It's a great feeling to officially know that we've reached our primary goal of qualifying our top internationally performing track programs," said Cycling Canada's high-performance director Jacques Landry. "After focussing all our collective energies on Olympic qualification for the last two years, it is now time to recover and start really focussing on Rio."

Other events include the sprint, keirin, team pursuit and omnium.

The Canadian men have only secured a berth in the keirin.

Remi Pelletier-Roy, of Longueuil, Que., had a chance to qualify for the omnium event but a broken collarbone before the start of the World Cup season dropped him out of contention.

"While it's a great feeling to have qualified our top programs, the feeling is bitter-sweet," said Landry. "We would have wanted to qualify more male spots in the team sprint, omnium and team pursuit events, but the reality is that we probably would have needed another year to get there. These programs will be top eight to top three competitive come 2020. For the time being, the focus is on the preparatory process that will lead to great performances in August for our track athletes."

 The team selected will be announced in the coming months.