Canada’s track team adds to country’s impressive medal haul at the Pan Am Games

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This article was published 02/11/2023 (1063 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SANTIAGO, Chile – Canada’s Pan Am Games team has made more trips to the top of the podium than it did four years ago, and there are still three days of competition to come.

Charles Philibert-Thiboutot and Sarah Mitton picked up Canada’s first two track and field gold medals on Thursday, and that gave the country 37 so far in Santiago.

Canada won 35 at the 2019 Games in Lima, Peru.

Philibert-Thiboutot, from Quebec City, picked up his second medal of the Games when he won gold in the men’s 1,500 metres.

The 32-year-old strained at the finish line to finish in three minutes 39.74 seconds, just two hundredths of a second faster than teammate Robert Heppenstal of Hamilton.

Philibert-Thiboutot won silver in the men’s 5,000 on Tuesday.

The 27-year-old Mitton, from Brooklyn, N.S., won gold in the women’s shot put with a throw of 19.19 metres. Mitton continued her successful year after winning silver at the world championships in August.

Rosa Ramirez of the Dominican Republic was second (17.99) and Adelaide Aquilla of the U.S. placed third (17.73).

Julie-Anne Staehli of Lucknow, Ont., took bronze in the women’s 5,000.

The track and field haul was part of another multi-medal day for Canada in Santiago.

In sailing, Canada was assured of an Olympic spot in the new discipline of women’s kite after Emily Bugeja of Vancouver finished sixth in the event.

“This competition had a lot of really tough conditions, some I’ve never seen or kited in before,” she said. “I think those are probably the biggest waves that I’ve ever kited in, let alone raced in.

“But I’m proud of the improvements that I made over the course of the week and I have a long list of things to work on over the coming months.”

Francois Lavoie of Quebec City and Michel Hupé of Winnipeg teamed up to win silver in men’s doubles bowling, finishing 76 points behind Panama’s Donald Lee and William Duen.

Canada picked up two fencing silver medals. The men’s épée team was edged 42-41 by the United States in its gold medal contest, while the women’s foil team fell 44-33 to the U.S. in its final.

Canadian wrestlers took home three medals with Hannah Taylor of Summerside, P.E.I., taking silver in women’s 57-kilogram freestyle. Hunter Lee of Flin Flon, Man., and Olivia Di Bacco of Orillia, Ont., earned bronze in the men’s 86-kg freestyle and the women’s 68-kg freestyle respectively.

Canada has won 126 medals so far in Santiago: 37 gold, 39 silver and 50 bronze.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 2, 2023.