Tristen Chernove takes world championship silver at the velodrome

MILTON, ONT. – Canada’s Tristen Chernove is a regular on the international podium, and he made it there once again on Friday with a silver medal performance at the 2020 UCI Para Cycling Track World Championships. 

He finished second in the men’s C2 1km time trial. The 44-year-old from Cranbrook, B.C. raced a blistering 1:12.231, which beat the previous world record heading into the day – but unfortunately France’s Alexandre Leaute had already set a new world mark of 1:11.373 to win the gold medal. Rounding out the podium was Aussie Gordon Allan in third. 

“What’s special is the level in Para sport, it just is exploding right now,” Chernove said. “For years and years it was incremental gains over records, like in able-bodied sport, but in the last quad every month the bar is just elevated five to 10 per cent. It’s just insane how quick the field is getting, just so skilled and deep.”  

A bronze medallist in the time trial at last year’s world championships, Chernove bested his result by one spot.  

Canada now has two medals at the world championships, hosted on home soil, following Kate O’Brien’s golden race in the women’s C4 500m time trial on Thursday. 

In other Canadian results, Lowell Taylor made his world championships debut with pilot Ed Veal and put in a strong personal-best performance, finishing seventh in the men’s tandem individual pursuit. The result was not quite fast enough to qualify them for the final though – only the top four pairs made it through. 

And in the men’s C1 1km time trial, Ross Wilson finished 10th. 

Chernove, Wilson, O’Brien, and Marie-Claude Molnar also raced Friday evening in their respective 200m flying start races. The event was not for medals but rather results go towards their overall omnium scores. The omnium medals will be awarded on Saturday and represent a combined score through all of their events at the world championships.

O’Brien, a Rio 2016 Olympian competing in her first Para competition, showed her sprint prowess by scoring her second world record in two days, with a time of 11.519 in the women’s C4. Molnar was seventh in 13.691. 

In the men’s C2 flying start, Chernove finished second, while Wilson was third in the C1 category. 

Competition at the Mattamy National Cycling Centre in Milton, Ont. continues through the weekend, with every member of the Canadian team set to compete on Saturday. Tickets are available for $8 at 2020uciparatrack.com. 

Viewers will be able to follow the action via the free CBC Gem streaming service, cbcsports.ca, the CBC Sports app for iOS and Android devices, and CPC Facebook page, as well as the Radio-Canada Sports app and radio-canada.ca/sports.The live streaming covers all finals and will commence at 12:30 p.m. ET on Saturday. For the compete live stream schedule please visit Paralympic.ca/paralympic-super-series.   

For the complete results, visit: https://tracktiming.live/eventpage.php?EventId=2003.

PHOTO: Rob Jones/Canadian Cyclist