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Local leads Canada’s Para Cycling World Team
Triple Paralympic Games medalist Tristen Chernove of Cranbrook, leads a 13-member team announced by Cycling Canada for the Para cycling road world championships August 31 to September 3 in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.
The men’s squad includes Chernove in the C2 category, a gold, silver and bronze medals at who led the Para cycling group to nine medals at the Rio Paralympics, tops on the Canadian team.
Other Rio medallists are Ross Wilson (C1) of Sherwood Park, B.C., Charles Moreau (H3) of Victoriaville, Que., and Michael Sametz (C3), of Calgary. The men’s team also includes Alexander Hyndman of Morpeth, Ont., and Joey Desjardins of Hawkesbury, Ont., both H3, and the tandem team of Matthieu Croteau Daigle of Sherbrooke and his pilot Benoit Lussier of Montreal.
The women’s squad is led by Rio bronze medalist and multiple world champion Shelley Gautier of Toronto in the T1 category. Other women on the team include Marie-Claude Molnar (C4) of St-Hubert, Que., Nicole Clermont (C5) St Denis de Brompton, Que., and the tandem team of Shawna Ryan of Saskatoon and Joanie Caron of Rimouski, Que.
Missing from the squad are former world and Paralympic champion Robbi Weldon of Thunder Bay, Ont., and her tandem pilot Audrey Lemieux of Alma, Que., who had to decline their selection as they recover from a crash at a World Cup earlier in the season.
Para head coach Sebastien Travers said, “We are impatient to compete against the top international elite athletes; this will be the first major event since the Rio Paralympic Games in September last year. The Canadian team is composed of very strong athletes and we are really looking forward to seeing them perform and step onto the podium in Pietermaritzburg.”
