OSTEND, Belgium – Keely Shaw of Midale, Sask. collected silver and bronze to highlight a four-medal weekend for Canada at the season opening Para cycling road World Cup.
Shaw, a bronze medallist on the track at the Tokyo Paralympics last year, finished second to Samantha Boscoe of the U.S. in the C4 women’s individual time trial. In that same race, Marie-Claude Molnar of Longueuil, Que. took the bronze.
“With two Canadians on the podium we can say mission accomplished for the first race of the season,” Molnar told Sportcom.
Two-time Paralympian Molnar, the reigning world champion, said the season-opening race was a bit of a grind.
“It was a pretty hard race,” she added. ‘’The conditions were great, but my fitness level was not 100 percent.”
Boscoe also won Sunday’s road race with Katell Alencon of France sneaking in for the silver ahead of Shaw in third. Molnar was fourth.
Also on the podium for Canada was 17-time world champion Shelley Gautier of Toronto with a silver in the women’s T1 tricycle time trial. She was also fourth in the road race.
There were other outstanding Canadian performances in Belgium, including:
· Matthew Kinnie of Riverview, N.B. was fourth in both the H2 hand cycle road race and time trial
· Lowell Taylor of Lethbridge, Alta. was fifth in both races in the men’s tandem with his pilot Ed Veal
· Carla Shibley of Calgary and her pilot Meghan Brown were also fifth in both women’s tandem races
· Also with fifth-place finishes were Kara Douville of Calgary in the women’s H4 road race and Alex Hyndman of Morpeth, Ont. in the men’s H3 time trial
The next stop on the World Cup circuit starts this week in Elzach, Germany.
