Sports

Top Canadian — Andrew York finishes seventh at Pan Am Games

August 5, 2015   ·   0 Comments

It’s been a busy year for Caledon’s Andrew Yorke.
Twelve months ago, the former Humberview Secondary School student was the top Canadian, in fourth place at the Commonwealth Games in Scotland.
Yorke came home from those games with two fourth-place finishes and a knowledge that he could race with the best in the world. After a very big winter of hard training in Guelph and South Carolina, he was fourth once again in a major race in New Zealand in the spring.
This past week, Yorke had more than 500 Caledon-based fans and family down in Toronto for the 2015 Pan Am Triathlon, where he was the top Canadian once again in a very close seventh place finish.
“Honestly, the course was too easy for Andrew’s incredible biking strength and he came off the bike with a bigger pack then he would have normally seen had the bike been up on something tough like the Forks of the Credit Road,” said his long-time C3 coach Barrie Shepley.
Shepley thought the pancake flat Lakeshore at the CNE didn’t give Andrew the home-town benefit he would have liked to have seen.
“As much as it was great to have the race in Ontario, I would have selfishly like to have seen the race up in Caledon on our tough roads, where I honestly believe Andrew would have had a legitimate chance to win the overall race,” Shepley observed.
The Town of Caledon and C3 have gotten behind Yorke’s goal to make it to the Rio Olympics next year with a massive Friends of Andrew Yorke fundraiser that was held in early May. The proceeds from that supper and C3’s on-going support, were designed to allow him to do all the right training in the right locations from now until Rio next August. Yorke has a major opportunity to be preselected to the 2016 Rio Olympic team by having a big performance Aug. 2 in Rio Brazil when he races on the actual Olympic test course.
“Andrew has consistently been the top Canadian when it mattered over the last two years and he has done the work, made the sacrifices and is ready to become an Olympian,” Shepley said.
Shepley was doing the live commentary at the Pan Am Games race site where Yorke was racing last week.
“Looking out and seeing Tracey and Ward Yorke along with hundreds of C3 and Caledon supporters on the race venue waiving flags and cheering for Andrew was quite emotional,” Shepley said. “Watching Andrew go from a 14-year-old C3 young-gun novice athlete to the Pan Am Games and hopefully next year’s Olympic Games is a truly special feeling for the entire C3 club and the town.”29-yorke - 2.75

         

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