U20 men win gold, Fafard claims silver at pan-am cross-country cup

Canada comes home from the 2022 Pan American Cross-Country Cup in Serra, Brazil with two individual medals and a team title.

The team of twenty-two runners braved conditions above 30 degrees Celsius on Sunday, March 27 to secure podium finishes in each of the championship’s four races: the U20 women’s 6k, the U20 men’s 8k, the open women’s 10k and the open men’s 10k.

Rudy Saal of Pembroke, Ontario led Canada’s U20 men’s team to their first team title since 2018. The runner for Les Coureurs de Bois finished third overall in the 8km race in a time of 26:41. Saal was followed closely by 2021 Canadian U20 cross-country champion Nolan Turgeon of Citius training group, who finished in fourth, just three seconds behind Saal. Xavier Lemaitre of Athlétisme Rive-Sud and Mathis Vallières of Citius crossed the line in sixth and seventh place in 27:28 and 27:38, respectively, securing Canada’s team victory over Mexico.

Canada's U20 women had three top finishers in the 6km. Ivy Bialowas of the Saint John Reds Track and Field Club led Team Canada with a sixth-place finish in 24:00. Jalen Marcil of the London Western Track and Field Club and Caroline Ash of the Newmarket Huskies also scored for Canada, finishing in eighth and ninth in 24:28 and 25:16, respectively.

In the senior women’s race, Canada finished second to Brazil, whose athletes claimed the first four overall spots. Club teammates Jessy Lacourse and Catherine Beauchemin of Club d’Athlétisme de l’Université Laval completed the 10k course in 37:23 and 37:34 to finish fifth and seventh, respectively, leading Team Canada to silver. Toronto’s Alexandra Lucki crossed the finish line one spot behind Beauchemin in 37:52, and Lindsay Carson of Burnaby rounded out the score with a tenth place finish in 38:07.

Thomas Fafard, meanwhile, enjoyed Canada’s best individual performance of the day, finishing second in the open men’s 10k in 32:03, just 17 seconds behind race winner Wendell Jeronimo Souza of Brazil. Fafard, also of the Club d’Athlétisme de l’Université Laval, had finished sixth at the Canadian Championship in the fall. Thomas Nobbs of the Vancouver Thunderbirds Track & Field Club, as well as Phil Parrot-Migas and Connor Black of London Western Track and Field Club also scored for Canada, finishing sixth, seventh and ninth in 32:25, 32:26, and 32:34, respectively. The open men’s team claimed second place, trailing only Brazil.

This year’s teams were coached by Bruce Deacon, a two-time Olympian in the marathon and the general manager of the 2020 Pan American Cross-Country Cup in Victoria, B.C.

At this event's last edition, Canada won the U20 women’s and senior women’s division, while picking up a pair of team bronze medals in the men’s U20 and senior races.

The Pan-American Cross-Country Cup is a biannual event, with its next edition scheduled for 2024. 

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