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University of Victoria grad Pendrel wins gold in Glasgow

GLASGOW, Scotland — Catharine Pendrel, whose life story spans Canada from New Brunswick to Victoria, won the women’s mountain bike gold medal here Tuesday at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

GLASGOW, Scotland — Catharine Pendrel, whose life story spans Canada from New Brunswick to Victoria, won the women’s mountain bike gold medal here Tuesday at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

A decision she made in Victoria has proven fruitful for Pendrel, who cycled the 32K course in one hour, 39 minutes, 29 seconds.

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The native of Harvey Station, N.B., began her sporting career as a casual athlete in the University of Victoria Triathlon Club before switching sports on the Island and placing fourth at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and winning the 2011 world mountain biking championships before a disappointing ninth place finish at the 2012 London Summer Olympics.

Pendrel previously told the Times Colonist she “met the two most hugely influential people in my life — husband Keith Wilson and coach Dan Proulx — at UVic and both on the first day of cycling practice.”

It has paid off in grand fashion, both personally and professionally, topped here with Commonwealth Games gold. Her emergence from part-time, casual athlete at UVic to world champion, two-time Olympian and now Commonwealth champion has been a fairly epic rise.

Pendrel said she didn’t think about specific medals Tuesday.

“I think if you get too focused on medals, it gets to your head,” she said.

But Pendrel didn’t let any head games get in the way at these Games.

“I found myself by myself [at the front of the pack] . . . I didn’t expect that,” she said.

Emily Batty of Toronto, who fractured her collarbone just four days before the 2012 London Summer Olympics but still battled to finish 24th, won the Commonwealth silver medal behind Pendrel in 1:40:39 ahead of bronze-medallist Rebecca Henderson of Australia.

The 2011 Guadalajara Pan American Games silver-medallist Max Plaxton of Victoria led for part of the way, and stayed with the clear four-cyclist lead breakaway group, before falling off his bike with two kilometres remaining and settling for fourth place in the Commonwealth Games men’s mountain-biking race at Cathkin Braes Country Park.

“You get bloody nervous when there’s four riders [vying for the podium],” said winner Anton Cooper of New Zealand.

“I want to win Olympic gold.”

Plaxton, raised in Tofino on both surfboards and bikes as part of an active globe-trotting Island family that also resided in Spain and Chile, is 29 and was trying to make up for a disappointing 2012 London Olympics when he was unable to finish the Games race after a crash.

“A month before the Olympics, I was on the Galloping Goose Trail and felt a sharp pain,” said Plaxton, who is fluent in England and Spanish.

“It happened pretty much at the worst time. I did what I could in London and raced with an incredible amount of pain.”

The Islander, who cites Wayne Gretzky and Terry Fox as his heroes and listens to Iron Maiden to get psyched before races, had a much better result Tuesday in the Commonwealth Games. But it fell just short of the podium in a 1-2 New Zealand finish with Cooper winning gold in 1:38:26, Samuel Gaze silver in 1:38:29, Daniel McConnell of Australia bronze in 1:38:36 and Plaxton fourth in 1:38:49 in the 35-entry field over the 45K men’s course

“A medal is the goal,” Plaxton said, before the race.

He missed it by one spot, just failing to join Roland Green of Victoria (gold at Manchester 2002), Seamus McGrath of Victoria (silver at Manchester 2002 and bronze at Melbourne 2006) and Kiara Bisaro of Courtenay (bronze at Melbourne 2006) as Commonwealth Games mountain-biking medallists from the Island.

In a big Island story scheduled for later Tuesday at the Games, two-time Olympic-medallist swimmer Ryan Cochrane goes for gold in the Tollcross Pool in the 1,500-metre freestyle after qualifying first Monday in 15:03.29.

“I felt really strong,” said the Victoria star.

“Now it’s all about [Tuesday night’s final]. I would be really happy to get close to the Commonwealth Games record.”

That would be the story coming full circle. The Commonwealth Games record — the then world record of 14:41.66 — was set by two-time Olympic gold-medallist Kieran Perkins of Australia at Victoria 1994 in the Saanich Commonwealth Place pool in which Cochrane now trains.