Roundup: Canada remains atop as Michelle Li defends title at Pan Am Games

Six days into Toronto 2015 Pan American Games competition and Canada has yet to relinquish its spot atop the medal standings.

On Thursday, the Canadian team won five more gold medals, which gives them 38 total. The host nation has 97 medals overall while the runner-up, the United States, has 96 medals including 34 gold.

In Thursday's women's badminton final, Chinese-Canadian Michelle Li defended her Pan Am champion with a 2-0 victory over fellow Canadian Rachel Honderich. Li's gold tops a six-medal performance from Canadian badminton team at Pan Am Games.

"It is tough to have to beat a friend," Li said. "To see her lose, it's not something I want. But I guess we're both mature enough to know that when we're on court, it's for yourself."

Li, who won gold four years ago at the 2011 Games in Guadalajara, Mexico, defeated Honderich 21-15, 21-9. Li and Honderich teamed up together to win doubles bronze earlier in the week.

"It's tough because we both know each other's games so well," Honderich said.

Canadian partners Gaby Dabrowski and Carol Zhao won a gold in tennis in the women's doubles event.

The Canadian men's and women's team sprint teams took double gold in the first day of track cycling at the Cisco Milton Pan Am/Parapan Am Velodrome.

Genevieve Morrison won Canada's fifth gold medal of the day in freestyle wrestling (48-kg event).

In the pool, a Canadian was disqualified at the women's 400-meter individual medley final for a "non-simultaneous" wall touch. Emily Overholt of West Vancouver appeared to win gold in a Pan Am record time of 4 minutes 35.33 seconds but officials ruled that her hands did not touch the wall at the same time during the breaststroke turn.

With Overholt disqualified, American Caitlin Leverenz finished first in 4:35.46, Canada's Sydney Pickrem was second in 4:38.03 and Joanna Maranhao of Brazil placed third in 4:38.07.

Meanwhile, the fate of Peruvian swimmer Mauricio Fiol, the first athlete to test positive for a banned substance at the Pan Am Games, and the silver medal he won this week in the men's 200-meter butterfly will be determined over the next day or so.

Canadian swimmer Zack Chetrat may end up with the silver and teammate Alec Page the bronze after Fiol tested positive for the steroid Stanozolol following Tuesday's race.

But Fiol, who has been expelled from the Athletes Village and suspended from the Games on Thursday, denied taking any banned substance. "I am very sorry, this has been a tough day for me especially because I promote fair play," Fiol said at his own emotional, hastily called news conference. "I apologize to my friends, my family and my country."

Fiol's performance at the Pan Am Games had qualified him for Rio 2016 Olympics. He has 48 hours to challenge the result of the A-sample or face up to a four-year suspension. Endi