“It was slippery in the second race because of the rain and there was no grip on the push rims because the grip-glue had no effect in the cold,” said Roy after her races. “It was good to get the silver, but I would have loved coming back to Canada with two podiums.”
“I am pretty happy with my performance at this point of the season,” said bilingual motivational speaker Adams. “My strategy entering the 1500m race could have been better, but I managed to stay close to the pack and use my kick in the last 200m to get the silver. I am thrilled with my result in pursuit. As an athlete, you always go for the gold, but Michel and I both ended up on the podium, which is promising for the season to come.”
Earlier in the day, Colin Mathieson (Winnipeg, MB) and Daniel Normandin (Verdun, QC) went head to head in the 100m final. Normandin completed the sprint in 6th place with a time of 15.89 seconds while Mathieson crossed the line in 8th position with a time of 16.03.
Normandin, who was taking part in his first Paralympic World Cup, said he enjoyed the meet as preparation for the World Championships in Assen, Holland coming this summer. “Overall, considering how tricky it was out there, I am OK with my 100m race,” said Normandin. “We prepared for rain, but it stopped and we had to guess the track condition.”
“I have a control over things I did wrong this morning, which I intend to change for the afternoon,” said Mathieson after his false start on his first race, the 100m. “You can either use it to fuel you or you can choose to forget all about it and start fresh for the second race, the 200m.” Mathieson completed the 200m in 5th position, tied with teammate Daniel Normandin with a time of 0:29.06 seconds.
At the long jump event, Stephanie Reid (Windsor, ON) finished in 4th place with a best jump of 4.10m, just two centimeters shy of silver position. Andrea Holmes of Vancouver BC finished in 5th place with a best jump of 4.09m.
“Our athletes performed well today in unstable weather conditions,” said Head Coach Jean Laroche. “We’ll go back to Canada and build on these results for our prime event this summer, the World Championships in Holland”
Canada’s star female racer, Chantal Petitclerc, was unable to attend the event due to illness.
The Visa Paralympic World Cup is the biggest international, annual multi-sport competition sanctioned by the International Paralympic Committee after the Paralympic Games and has been staged in Manchester, Great Britain for the past two years. The event plays a critical role in providing international competition between Paralympic Games.
