Canada captured a pair of gold medals in track and field at the Pan American Games on Tuesday while the water-skiers continued their parade to the top of the podium.
Diane Cummins of Victoria won the women's 800 metres and Dylan Armstrong of Kamloops, B.C., earned a gold in the men's shot put to give Canada its first two medals at the track meet.
In water-skiing, Jaret Llewellyn of Innisfail, Alta., won a pair of gold medals in the jump and trick events while Whitney McClintock of Cambridge, Ont., claimed gold in the tricks. She also added a silver in jump while Ryan Dodd of Olds, Alta., earned a silver in jump and a bronze in tricks. Canada finished the competition with nine medals.
Meanwhile, the Canadian women's tennis table team won a silver medal Tuesday and the men's squad took the bronze. Wrestler Ari Taub of Calgary also won a bronze medal in the 120-kilogram Greco Roman class and Joshua Riker-Fox of Delacour, Alta., earned a bronze in modern pentathlon.
Canada's 12-medal haul Tuesday boosted its overall total to 81 - 20 gold, 28 silver and 33 bronze. The Canadians remained in fourth place in the medal standings while the U.S., stayed atop the table with 164 medals (67-64-33). Cuba was second with 74 (33-17-24) while Brazil retained third spot with 95 (30-24-41).
Medal standings are calculated using number of gold medals.
Cummins finished the race in one minute 59.76 seconds and then exuberantly ran around the track with a Canadian flag. Colombia's Rosibel Garcia Mena was second in 2:00.02 followed by Zulia Celatayud of Cuba in 2:00.34.
Cummins said the race was run at a very quick pace.
"But once you start, you can't stop," she said. "This was definitely my best race ever. It felt great to be at the front."
Cummins, who was born in South Africa, said she had envisioned herself atop the podium hearing the Canadian national anthem.
"That's what I dreamt of last night," said Cummins. "I sang O Canada the whole day today, over and over and over in my head. My coach back home (Brent Fougner) said 'believe you can win, because if you believe you can win, that's the first step to doing it."'
Armstrong won the shot put with a toss of 20.10 metres. Dorian Scott of Jamaica was second at 20.06 followed by Carlos Veliz of Cuba at 19.75.
"I was confident, training has been going well all year," said Armstrong. "I've stayed pretty consistently over 20 metres."
Llewellyn captured the men's tricks title with a Pan Am record 11,040 points after earlier winning the jump event with a score of 65.40.
"I'm ecstatic," Llewellyn said. "I dreamed of coming to Rio and winning two medals."
Dodd was second in the jump at 64.30 and Rodrigo Miranda of Chile was third at 61.20. In tricks, Dodd took bronze with 9,580 points, behind American Cory Pickos, who was second with 10,650.
McClintock, who won gold in the women's slalom Monday, finished atop the podium again with a Pan Am record score of 7,530 in the tricks. Mandy Nightingale of the U.S., was second with 7,380 while Regina Jaquess, also of the U.S., was third at 7,050. Earlier in the day, McClintock went 43.50 metres to finish second in the jump event. Jaquess won gold with 43.70 while Nightingale took the bronze in 42.10.
In women's table tennis, Chris Xu of Vancouver and Ottawa's Mo Zhang and Judy Long lost 3-0 to the U.S., in the team gold-medal game.
"We are very, very happy with this silver medal," said Zhang. "We were confident that we could do well in this final, but the U.S.A., with two players ranked in the top 20 in the world, are very strong."
The men's team of Pierre-Luc Hinse of Montreal and Ottawa's Pradeeban Peter-Paul and Qiang Shen lost 3-1 to Brazil in the semifinals and had to settle for bronze.
Riker-Fox was third in modern pentathlon with an overall score of 5,328. The result qualifies Riker-Fox for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Eli Bremer was first with 5,380. Modern pentathlon combines shooting, fencing, swimming, equestrian and running.
"I'm waiting to wake up," said Riker-Fox. "I've been dreaming this dream every night for the last six years. I've been dreaming about it at night, but I've been scared to think about it during the day because I didn't know if it would ever actually happen."
Taub lost 3-0 to American Dremiel Byers in their semifinal bout Tuesday to finish third. The medal was the first for the Canadian wrestling team at these Games. Promise Mwenga of Moncton, N.B., and Jonathan Rioux of South Tetagouche, N.B., failed to advance.
In women's basketball, Canada lost 62-49 to Cuba in the bronze-medal game. Sarah Crooks of Fife Lake, Sask., had 15 points and seven rebounds for Canada, while Uzoma Asagwara of Winnipeg added seven points.
In other action at the track, Angela Whyte of Edmonton and Perdita Felicien head into Wednesday's first and second in the women's 100-metre hurdles. Whyte ran 12.68 to win her heat, while Felicien finished in 12.69 to win hers.
Tyler Christopher, a native of Chilliwack, B.C., who lives and trains in Edmonton, cruised to an easy victory in his 400-metre semifinal, his 45.28 the fastest time overall. And Jessica Zelinka of London, Ont., leads after the first day of the heptathlon. Zelinka, who lives in Calgary, had 3,786 points after four events. Cubans were second and third with Gretchen Quintana scoring 3,590, followed by Yasmiany Pedroso in third with 3,514.
In other events Tuesday:
- The Canadian women's field hockey team defeated Cuba 3-2 in the fifth-place game. Tiffany Michaluk of West Vancouver, B.C., led the Canadian attack with two goals.
- The Canadian women's tenpin bowling team of Kerrie Ryan-Ciach of Mississauga, Ont., and Lynne Gauthier of Winnipeg finished seventh with a total score of 4,833 while the Americans won gold with 5,356. Darren Klassen of Winkler, Man., and Jason Kovack of Windsor, Ont., finished 12th on the men's side with 4, 689. The U.S., won gold with 5,260.
- Canada defeated Mexico 3-1 (17-25, 25-19, 29-27, 25-19) in men's indoor volleyball preliminary play.
- Crispen Duenas of Toronto was the top Canadian in the first round of men's individual archery in fourth spot. Kristin Niles of Fredericton, N.B., was the top female in eighth spot.