Katie Vincent, Sloan MacKenzie gold leads Canada’s canoe/kayak march to Pan Am Games podium

Canadian paddlers carried Friday’s success into the penultimate day of competition at the Pan Am Games in Santiago, Chile.

Canoeists Katie Vincent of Mississauga, Ont., and Sloan MacKenzie of Windsor Junction, N.S., led the way with a gold medal in the C2 500-metre sprint, reaching the finish in one minute 54.26 seconds to defeat the Chilean duo of María Mailliard and Paula Gómez by 17-100ths of a second.

The Canadians had previously secured an Olympic spot for next summer in Paris with a bronze-medal performance in August in the C2 500 at the sprint canoe world championships in Duisburg, Germany.

The 27-year-old Vincent, from Mississauga, Ont., earned bronze in her 2021 Summer Games debut with Laurence Vincent-Lapointe in the C2 500 in Tokyo.

Earlier this year, Vincent was off the water for over four weeks after breaking two bones in her arm in a cycling accident a little more than three months from worlds.

In Duisburg, she also successfully defended her world title in the mixed C2 500 race with Connor Fitzpatrick of Dartmouth, N.S., who began Saturday’s medal haul in Chile posting a time of 3:55.13 for C1 1,000m bronze.

The C2 race involves two-person canoes, with paddlers in a kneeling position using single paddles, while Fitzpatrick held a single paddle.

Less than 1 second shy of K2 500 gold

José Román Pelier of Cuba won the race in 3:48.69, followed by Brazil’s Isaquias Queiroz (3:54.05).

Courtney Stott of Pickering, Ont., followed with K2 500 bronze with Ottawa’s Madeline Schmidt, stopping the clock in 1:42.84 behind Mexico (1:41.98) and Argentina (1:42.45).

The K2 event features two paddlers seated in tandem using double-bladed paddles to perform cyclical repetitions of a forward stroke in phase.

Canada’s Nick Matveev, Pierre-Luc Poulin, Laurent Lavigne and Simon McTavish wrapped up the day’s competition grabbing silver in K4 500 1:21.28, 48-100ths in arrears of Argentina. The United States (1:23.10) finished in bronze position.

The Canadian squad entered afternoon action ranked third in overall medals with 146 and fourth with 42 gold among 34 participating countries from the Americas and Caribbean.

WATCH | Highlights of Saturday’s early action from Santiago, Chile:

Canada 0-for-2 in Olympic water polo qualifying

Canada will have to wait until February for a third and final chance to qualify a women’s water polo team for the Paris Olympics next summer.

The United States secured a berth with its sixth consecutive Pan Am Games gold medal, beating the Canadians 20-11.

Five countries have qualified: the Netherlands, Spain (1-2 at worlds), Australia (Oceania regional champion) and China (Asia) while France qualified as host. Still to be determined are champions in Europe (January) and Africa (February), plus the two highest-ranked teams from the world tourney in February in Doha, Qatar.

Canada won gold in 1999 when the women’s game made its Pan Am Games debut in Winnipeg. Since then, it has won the silver medal at each Games.

The Canadians, who returned six players from their seventh-place effort at the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo, will try to gain a berth for Paris at the Feb. 2-18 World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar.

They advanced to Saturday’s final with a 21-4 semifinal rout of Brazil 21-4 the previous day.

Drive Hayley McKelvey of North Delta, B.C., paced Saturday’s attack with four goals. Toronto wing Verica Bakoc and 19-year-old centre back Serena Browne of Pointe-Claire, Que., added hat tricks while Montreal wing Axelle Crevier rounded out the scoring.

In July, the Americans cruised to a 16-4 victory over Canada in the fifth-place bracket at the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, where they failed to finish on the podium at a major tournament in a decade.