The rapidly exhilarating fifth and final day packed one morning session with the remaining five events including: Men’s Elimination Race, Women’s Madison, Women’s Keirin, Men’s Time Trial, and Men’s Madison.
In the Men’s Elimination Race, Grant Koontz (Nederland, Colo.; Star Track Cycling) represented Team USA and rode to victory winning his second gold medal of the week. Jordan Arley Parra Arias of Team Colombia would claim the silver and Jacob Decar Zuñiga of Team Chile would take the bronze.
Jennifer Valente (San Diego; TWENTY24 Pro Cycling) and Megan Jastrab (Apple Valley, Calif.; Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) paired up as the Team USA duo for the Women’s Madison. In a seemingly effortless relay, they swept the competition to win gold with a total of 51 points. This would be Valente’s fifth gold medal of the week. Team Colombia would take the silver with 32 points and Team Canada would round out the podium for bronze with 29 points.
Mandy Marquardt (Allentown, Pa.; Team Novo Nordisk) and Kayla Hankins (Scottsdale, Ariz.) represented Team USA in the Women’s Keirin. Neither qualified through the first round and had to race the Repechage where both claimed the top qualifying position in their respective heats to move through to the Semi-Final. In the Semi-Final, Hankins finished fourth in her heat, narrowly missing the cut for the Final 1-6. During Marquardt’s Semi-Final heat, she led going into the final straight away sprint when a rider behind caused her to crash. The rider was relegated and Marquart would finish the heat in third. In a stunning show of strength, she got back on her bike to complete in the Final 1-6. Martha Bayona Pineda of Team Colombia would win the gold, Luz Daniela Gaxiola Gonzalez of Team Mexico claimed the silver, and Kelsey Mitchell of Team Canada would take the bronze.
In the Men’s Time Trial Jamie Alvord III (King of Prussia, Penn.) and David Domonoske (Palo Alto, Calif.) represented Team USA and clocked the third- and fifth-fastest times in Qualifying to advance to the Final. Domonoske shot through the latter half of his heat to take the bronze medal with a time of 1:02.689. Cristian David Ortega Fontalvo of Team Colombia would claim the silver and Santiago Ramirez Morales of Team Colombia would win the gold.
The Men’s Madison was the concluding event of the morning and the Team USA duo consisted of Grant Koontz (Nederland, Colo.; Star Track Cycling) and Peter Moore (St. Paul, Minn.). The pair took one lap and won seven sprints to win the gold medal with a total of 79 points. Team Mexico would claim the silver with 59 points and Team Colombia would take the bronze with 52 points.
Team USA finished the 2024 Pan American Track Cycling Championships with a total of seventeen medals and claimed the highest gold medal count of the championship with twelve.
Full results for the 2024 Pan American Track Cycling Championships can be found here.
Photo: Craig Huffman
