Chalifour and Cloutier help boost Canada’s medal totals on Day 6 of Parapan Ams

TORONTO – Daniel Chalifour and pilot Alexandre Cloutier are doing their part for Canada at the Parapan American Games.

Chalifour of Mont-Laurier, Que., and Cloutier, of St-Antoine-de-Tilly, Que., led a Canadian sweep in the mixed time trial B on Thursday.

In total, 27 medals were won in six different sports by Canada on Day 6 of competition.

The Canadians have 43 gold and 140 medals overall — trailing only Brazil, which has 86 gold and 210 overall. The United States is third with 34 gold and 110 total medals.

“A super week,” said Chalifour, who also finished first in the pursuit and one-kilometre time trial on the track and second in the road race last weekend. ‘”We came in here with some question marks but we performed beyond our expectations. It’s hard to ask for better.”

Chalifour and Cloutier clocked 26 minutes 47.11 seconds. Robbi Weldon of Thunder Bay, Ont., and Audrey Lemieux of Montreal took silver in 26:58.04 and Saskatoon’s Shawna Ryan and Joanie Caron of Rimouski, Que., were third at 27:47.62.

Charles Moreau, of Trois-Rivieres, Que., won the bronze medal in mixed time trial H1-5 while Toronto’s Shelley Gautier took silver in the mixed time trial T1-2.

Wheelchair racer Brent Lakatos of Dorval, Que., won his second gold medal of the Games, taking first place in the T53 800-metre race. Kyle Whitehouse of St. Catharines, Ont., added a gold medal in the men’s T38 200.

Lakatos thought he had wrapped up the T53 800 title when he crossed the line first when the race was originally run on Wednesday, but a crash and a subsequent disqualification forced a re-run.

“We go out there and we’ve got to be focused when we’re doing it,” he said. “We have no idea what’s going to happen so you have to be prepared for everything, you can’t be thinking about what happened yesterday or last month.

“Just went out there and did it.”

He finished in one minute 43.90 seconds, ahead of the Colombian pair of Edisson Martinez Sarmiento and Jesus Aguilar.

Lakatos won the 100 metres earlier this week, and could add another gold in Friday night’s 400 metres.

Alexandre Dupont and his wife Ilana Dupont of Clarenceville, Que., combined for three medals in athletics on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Canadian swimmers added 10 medals to their impressive haul, including golds by Aurelie Rivard of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., in the women’s S10 100-metre backstroke and Sarah Mehain of Vernon, B.C., in the women’s S7 50 butterfly.

Rivard continued her dominant performance in Toronto, winning her fifth gold medal of the Games. Rivard took the S10 100 backstroke in a Parapan Am record time of 1:09.72.

“After the 400-m, this is the race I’m the happiest to swim well,” Rivard said. “I didn’t know how fast the other girls would swim so I told myself to just give what I’ve got. I gave everything I had and nothing less. If the race was 101 meters, I’m sure I wouldn’t be talking right now.”

Mehain won her third medal of the Games, and first gold, winning the S7 50 butterfly in 37.07 seconds.

Ian Kent of Eastern Passage, N.S. and Masoud Mojtahed, a former Montreal and Vancouver resident, fell to Brazil in the men’s table tennis team play for silver.

Toronto’s Joel Dembe and Philippe Bedard of Bromont, Que., took bronze in wheelchair tennis men’s doubles with a 6-4, 6-2 win against the U.S.

Hamilton’s Alex Radoman captured bronze in the men’s 81kg category by beating American Ryan Jones by Ippon in 1:28.00.

“I just went out there and did what I could, knowing my strategy going into the match,” Radoman said. ”It’s been a little bit of an emotional rollercoaster. I haven’t had some success in a little while — I’m going to use this to fuel myself.”

The U.S. men’s sitting volleyball team beat Canada 26-24, 25-23, 16-25, 25-21. The loss means Canada won’t qualify for next summer’s Rio Olympics.

The Canadian wheelchair rugby team beat Brazil 62-38 in the semifinals to earn a rematch against the U.S. in the gold medal game. The winner also earns a ticket to the 2016 Paralympics.

Arinn Young had a game-high 22 points as Canada earned its fourth-straight win with a 82-28 victory over Argentina.

The Canadian football 7 squad tied Venezuela 1-1 for a spot in the bronze medal game on Saturday.