Para cyclist Mel Pemble secures omnium gold at track world championships

Photo: Jean Baptiste Benavent/Cycling Canada

Mel Pemble certainly proved she belongs with the best in the world this week, coming home with two gold medals and a world record from the 2022 Para Cycling Track World Championships. Competition wrapped up in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France on Sunday.

The 22-year-old breakout star, in her first Para cycling worlds appearance, wrapped up her solo races a day earlier with a seventh place in the women’s C3 individual pursuit. While she did not qualify for the medal rounds, the finish secured her first overall in the omnium.

A combined score from four races, Pemble finished the omnium with 150 points – two ahead of silver medallist Aniek Van Den Aarssen of the Netherlands. American Clara Brown was third with 144 points.

Pemble, from Victoria, was first in the non-medal flying 200m on day one of the meet – in world record time – and world champion in the scratch race. She was also fourth in the 500m time trial, in addition to her seventh in the individual pursuit.

On Sunday, Canada wrapped up the four-day event with all three of its racers joining forces for the mixed team sprint event. Pemble, Kate O’Brien of Calgary, and Quispamsis, N.B.’s Alexandre Hayward finished 11th with a time of 57.311.

O’Brien, a 2020 world champion and Tokyo Paralympic Games silver medallist, captured silver in the women’s C4 500m time trial on Thursday, while Alexandre Hayward – on only the 13th day in his career racing in a velodrome – was fifth in the men’s C3 individual pursuit in his debut appearance on Friday.

CANADIAN PODIUMS

GOLD – Mel Pemble, Women’s C3 Omnium
GOLD – Mel Pemble, Women’s C3 Scratch Race
SILVER – Kate O’Brien, Women’s C4 500m Time Trial  

To view the full results from the 2022 Para Cycling Track World Championships, visit Paraworlds2022.veloresults.com.