Women’s pursuit team blasts to bronze

At the Velodrome Saturday afternoon the women’s team kept Canada’s weekend medal trend rolling along with a bronze in the team pursuit. Victoria B.C.’s Gillian Carleton, Coquitlam, B.C.’s Jasmine Glaesser and Edmonton’s AB’s Tara Whitten took down Australia. The podium victory takes Canada to nine medals.

“It really feels amazing” said Whitten. “We had to regroup (from yesterday) and I’m really proud of how the team came together today. We were just fighting the whole way and it’s just amazing to have done it.”

In ‘doing it’ the pursuit crew also set a new Canadian record in the Olympic debut for this event during their semifinal in 3:17.454, while opponents Great  Britain went on to set a new world record time of 3:14.051 in their final.

“We knew it was going to be a battle. We knew it was going to come down to the last lap, but we were 100% committed,” said Glaesser.

On the men’s side, Zach Bell rode sits in ninth place after three events in the 6-event Omnium race.