Canadian Trail: Home team surpasses 100 Pan Am medals

Canada punctuated the first week of competition at the Pan American Games by reaching, then surpassing the 100-medal mark on Friday.

• Pan Am newsmaker of the day: Dori Yeats

The Canadians continued their impressive showing at the Cisco Pan Am Velodrome, adding to the medal haul with a gold in the women's pursuit and a gold in the women's keirin final.

The team of Calgary's Allison Beveridge, Vancouver's Laura Brown, Jasmin Glaesser, of Coquitlam, B.C., and Kirsti Lay, of Medicine Hat, Alta., finished the pursuit race in a Pan Am record time of four minutes 19.664 seconds in the final to edge the United States.

• Canada's track cycling women earn 2 more 

Mexico beat out Colombia to capture the bronze medal.

Glaesser said the Canadians rode a technically sound final race.

"I think in qualifying we started a little bit quick and maybe weren't in control of the back half of the race," she said. "Our plan was to settle the first six laps and then to really finish strong and I think we showed that.

"We really rode within our abilities in the first half and then the second part of the race took care of itself."

Calgary's Monique Sullivan held off hard-charging Cuban Lisandra Guerra to capture the women's keirin final, winning by roughly one tire length. Colombia's Juliana Gaviria Rendon won bronze.

Canada stood in second place in the overall medal total with 110, three back of the U.S.

Canadians had earned 45 gold, 38 silver and 27 bronze.

Podium finishes for both squash teams

The Canadian women's squash team didn't fare as well as its track cycling counterparts, settling for silver with a loss to the Americans. The U.S. won the first two matches in the best-of-three final to take the gold.

Olivia Blatchford opened with an 11-4, 12-10, 11-8 victory over Hollie Naughton of Mississauga, Ont., and Amanda Sobhy secured the team victory with an 11-3, 11-2, 11-8 win over Samantha Cornett of Deep River, Ont.

"We thought we could do it," Naughton said. "We knew it would take a couple hard matches and it would be close. But we did think it was doable but it was going to be tough. And it proved to be a bit tougher than we thought."

The men's squash team, however, claimed gold with a victory over Mexico.

Andrew Schnell of Calgary opened with an 11-9, 11-7, 11-8 victory over Eric Galvez and Shawn Delierre sealed the win with a 7-11, 11-4, 11-5, 11-7 victory over Cesar Salazar at Exhibition Centre.

Overholt rebounds following DQ

Canada's night at the pool got off to a good start with West Vancouver, B.C., native Emily Overholt taking gold in the 400-metre freestyle, one night after a disqualification took first place away from her in the 400 individual medley.

Overholt finished the freestyle race in a Pan Am record time of 4:08.42 seconds. Venezuela's Andreina Pinto earned silver in 4:08.67 while American Gillian Ryan placed third in 4:09.46.

"Last night was heartbreaking, I wanted to win so badly today to make up for it," Overholt said. "I'm so happy right now."

• Ryan Cochrane, Emily Overholt stay golden

Shortly after Overholt's win, Victoria's Ryan Cochrane cruised to gold in the men's 400 freestyle by a margin of over a second. Cochrane set a Pan Am record in finishing the race in 3:48.29.

Rachel Nichol of Lethbridge, Alta., and Edmonton's Richard Funk each earned in 100 breaststroke.

Women wrestlers add to gold total

In women's wrestling, Braxton Stone-Papadopoulos of Pickering, Ont., defeated Cuba's Katerina Vidiaux to win gold in 63-kilogram freestyle and Montreal's Dori Yeats took gold in the 69-kg freestyle with a win over Venezuela's Maria Acosta. Coquitlam, B.C., native Justina Di Stasio settled for silver after losing to American Adeline Gray in the 75-kg freestyle.

Earlier in the day, Canadian Michel Dion won bronze in the men's 50-metre rifle prone. Brazil's Cassio Rippel took gold while American Michael McPhail placed second.

The Canadian women's basketball team is 2-0 in preliminary play after downing Argentina 73-58. Miranda Ayim and Tamara Tatham scored 12 points apiece to help Canada secure a spot in the semifinals.

• Canada's women's basketball team improves to 2-0

Canada's men's baseball team suffered its first loss of the tournament, falling 4-1 to the U.S. in the final preliminary game.

The Canadians, who had already clinched the top seed at the tournament, will play Puerto Rico in Saturday's semifinal.

And in women's field hockey, Canada topped Mexico 4-0 to secure second place in Pool A.