Harvey Station to host screening of local Olympian's race

Harvey Station's Olympic hopeful is about to race, and her community is ready to watch.

At the Harvey Memorial Community Centre, Daniel Fletcher set up tables and chairs to accommodate the crowd he expects to show up to cheer on Olympic cross-country mountain-biker, and Harvey Station native, Catharine Pendrel.

"We really want to step up and show Catharine how much we care about her," said Fletcher, a volunteer organizing the race-viewing event."She represents our community the way we'd want to be represented."

Pendrel is a decorated world champion, who has high hopes for the Games, somethingshe made clear four years ago.

"Maybe in Rio"

One of three Olympians in Rio with New Brunswick roots, this is 35-year-old Pendrel's third Olympic Games.

By the time she got to London, she was at the top of her game, but in a disappointing finish, she placed 9th at the 2012 Olympic Games.

Her coping mechanism was to look ahead.

"Maybe in Rio," she told reporters after the race.

Since then, she's won the2014 world championships and she's the current reigning CommonweathGames champion. She placedsecond at last summer's Pan Am Games in Toronto.

But the pressure to medal, is her own, according to Fletcher.

"We have no pressure on her," he said. "We're just here to support her in whatever she accomplishes," said Fletcher.

Family racing the clock

Missing from Saturday's gathering will be Pendrel's parents. They're on a race of their own.

After a delay out of Fredericton caused them to miss their flight to Rio, they've been up against the clock.

They were first put on a flight that would land only two hours before the race, a risky, if not impossible challenge, with the racecourse about 30 kilometres away from the airport, and traffic so bad it has even delayed Olympic officials.

Her mother Johanna Bertin has been posting updates to Facebook and says they have since been rerouted through SaoPaulo.

They have their fingers crossed the new route will get them to the course on time.

A local hero

Back in Harvey Station, Fletcher says they're hoping as many as 250 people will come out to watch at the community centre.

AlthoughPendrel now lives in Kamloops, B.C., Fletcher said she's still a hometown heroperforming on the world stage.

"As a small community, whenever you've lived here, you're always a part of our community," he said. " We're always going to be proud of Catharine no matter where in the world she goes."

"We're here to cheer her all day tomorrow and afterwards as well, win, draw, or lose."

Pendrel races at 12:30pmAT Saturday. The community centre screening room will open at noon.