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Congratulations to Dalhousie Engineering alum, Mark de Jonge, on his gold medal win at the 2015 Pan American Games. Article orinally featured in the Chronicle Herald:

WELLAND, Ont. — Nova Scotia’s paddlers continued to do their part to boost Canada’s medal totals at the Pan American Games on Tuesday.

Halifax’s Mark de Jonge won a gold and a bronze and Fall River’s Michelle Russell and Dartmouth’s Jason McCoombs added silvers. Gymnast Ellie Black of Halifax also won a bronze in the women’s vault.

De Jonge, 31, captured his gold in the K-1 200 metres and earned his bronze in the K-2 100 with Pierre-Luc Poulin. Russell secured her medal in the K-1 200 and McCoombs got his in the C-1 200.

“I was in the thick of things in the first 50 (metres) but started to pull away as I kept going,” de Jonge said by phone from Ontario. “I managed to hang on and just keep the power going throughout the second half of the race.

“It felt really good. I approached it as a very serious race and I wanted to do really well at home. I came at it all guns blazing and really prepared the best I could.”

De Jonge is the reigning world champion in the K-1 200 and also won bronze in the event at the 2012 Olympics in London. The margin of victory this time was more than a half a second, which is fairly substantial in such a short race. He crossed in 35.733 seconds, .506 seconds ahead of Brazil’s Edson Isaias Freitas da Silva.

“In that event, it’s not often you know how you’ve done as you cross the finish line,” de Jonge said. “So crossing the finish line and knowing I’d won was special and a new thing for me. It was a great race.”

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