The calm, the cool, the steely-eyed composure went out the window as the Pan Am Games women’s 10-metre air pistol final went on.

And along came a gold medal for Canada’s Lynda Kiejko.

The 34-year-old Calgarian rode the emotion of a boisterous crowd — an uncommon occurrence at a major shooting competition — to capture her family’s second straight pistol gold, and assure Canada of a spot in the 2016 Rio Olympics.

“My heart was racing like a steam engine and it was pounding,” said Kiejko, whose sister Dorothy Ludwig won the same medal four years ago in Guadalaraja, Mexico.

“I just accepted it and said ‘No worries, we got this, my heart is racing so it's working well, it's good,’ and I carried on from there.”

Kiejko, whose late father Bill Hare shot for Canada at the 1964, 1968 and 1972 Olympics, had a score of 195.7 to finish first.

Mexico’s Alejandra Zavala finished second with 194.3 and Lilian Castro of El Salvador was third at 172.0.

Kiejko’s medal gives her two in a long shooting career. She won a bronze medal for Canada at the 2003 Pan Am Games in Santo Domingo.

The gold assures Canada of a Rio shooting berth but it won’t necessarily go to Kiejko. Shooting Federation Canada will determine the athlete at a future trials event.

Kiejko knew going into the event that the chance at a rather unorthodox crowd was real. An event at home, with much on the line, lent itself to a noisy environment and she worked on it.

“I did train for it knowing that there was likely to be a big cheering crowd,” she said. “I did have some amazing training partners at home who trained with me and they made lots of noise and distractions and it was really great. And to have that confidence that cheering is to support me, it's not against me, it's for me. I think that really helped.

“There's a lot of times where shooting is very reserved and very quite and very dignified, and we threw all of that to the wayside,” she said.

“The cheering was awesome. It was great. Knowing that it was a home crowd and that at least 95 per cent of the cheering was for me was really nice.”