The Canadian flag was raised the most number of times over the medal podium at last night’s first session of finals at the 2015 Pan American Games. The Canadians snatched up golds across three women’s races, led by sprinter Chantal van Landeghem‘s remarkable 100m freestyle upset win over American Natalie Coughlin and The Bahamas’ Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace. Audrey Lacroix added to the excitement clenching gold in the 200m butterfly event, then the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay topped off the night with a tremendous victory by just two tenths over the United States.
Brazil’s Leonardo de Deus put his country on the gold medal tally board with his Games record gold in the men’s 200m butterfly, which helped then fuel the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay victory. Argentina’s Federico Grabich was perhaps the most surprising gold of all yesterday, as he lowered the Argentinian 100m freestyle national record three times between prelims, finals and leading off his team’s 4x100m free relay. That Argentinian relay lost out to bronze to the Americans by just about a second.
The United States’ highest individual finishes yesterday came in the form of Natalie Coughlin‘s 100m freestyle silver and Kate Mills‘ silver in the women’s 200m butterfly.
