What Kingston-connected athletes did on the first day of the XVII Pan American games, in and around Toronto:

Brittany Benn—With former Queen’s varsity player Nadia Popov, was part of the Canadian women’s rugby team that won three games, 55-0 over Colombia, 60-0 over Mexico and 36-0 over Brazil.

Benn had one try against the Colombians and another against Brazil. Popov scored one against Mexico.

Will Crothers—Was in the bow seat for the Canadian men’s four that won its heat in the rowing competition in St. Catharines. Crothers, Tim Schrijver of St. Catharines, Kal Langerfield of Parksville, B.C., and stroke Conlin McCabe of Brockville took the lead in the second 500 metres and finished the 2,000-metre race in six minutes, 18.01 seconds, with a nine-second margin of victory over Argentina. the Canadian crew now goes directly to the final on Monday morning.

Rob Gibson—Was second in the fast heat of the men’s single at the rowing regatta in St. Catharines, and advanced to a repechage. Third at the first 500 metres, Gibson moved into second place by the mid-way point in the race and was just 2.29 seconds behind the leader with 500 metres to go. Ultimately American Yohann Riggone pulled ahead to win in 7 minutes 6.78 seconds, 15.99 seconds faster than Gibson., who was four and a half seconds faster than Eduardo Linares of Peru, who finished third. Angel Fournier of Cuba won the other heat in 7:11.74. Gibson’s time, 7:22.77, was the fifth fastest in the heats, overall.

• Gibson won his repechage in 7:19.16 and qualified for Wednesday’s final. His time was the fastest in either repechage. Trailing by a fraction of a second after 500 metres, Gibson took the lead in the second 500, and won by almost three seconds over Mexican Juan Cabrera.

Matt Mullins—Former Queen’s varsity men’s player scored two tries as Canada won its first preliminary game in the men’s rugby tournament, 45-0 over Guyana. The Canadians went on to defeat Brazil 26-14 but then lose 21-7 to Argentina in a game where they would surrender two tries in the first five minutes.