Nicole Clermont will be bringing back at least one bronze medal from the Parapan Am Games when she returns to school in a few weeks. On Saturday, the 53-year old cyclist missed a gold medal by three seconds when she laid down a time of 1 hour 21 minutes and 10 seconds in the Women’s Road Race C1-5.
The race had relatively rare double gold medal as Samantha Heinrich of the United States and Mariela Delgado of Argentina tied with identical times of 1:21:07. The other Canadian in the race, Marie-Claude Molnar of St-Hubert, finished fifth, just two and a half minutes out of the medals.
Clermont, an elementary school principal in Sherbrooke, is also scheduled to compete in the Mixed Road Race C1-5 on Thursday at 11 a.m.
Two other local athletes were in action this weekend as Jonathan Vermette and Maude Jacques had their first games in the Wheelchair Basketball competition.
Vermette played 15 minutes as the men’s squad defeated Venezuela 102-27 in its opening game on Saturday. The team is back on the floor in the group stage against Mexico tonight at 7:30 p.m.
Jacques, who was born in Sherbrooke but now lives near Quebec City, played just over 14 minutes and scored eight points in the women’s squad defeated Guatemala 78-18 in its opening game. They were still on the floor against Mexico at the press deadline on Sunday night. They are next on the floor Tuesday afternoon in their final group stage game against Brazil.
The team is looking to better the silver medal that they picked up at the Guadalajara 2011 Parapan Am Games.
