Saturday 20 November 2010

Pan American Championships: first day - men's - successful day for USA

In the first day of competition, William Brady from the USA clinched the title. Brady was second last year (Buenos Aires, Argentina) after a great comeback from Guatemalan Andrei Gheorghe in the second half of the combined event, but this year he managed the lead to take the title. Currently ranked as #27 in the world (the highest ranked pentathlete in the field yesterday), Brady will gain some positions and can end the year ranked as #24. Brady finished ahead of Cuban Yaniel Velazquez, who missed last season and earlier this year participated only in Seniors World Championships, where he failed to qualify for the final. Velazquez now will be ranked around 75-80 in the world ranking. The third place was Jorge Inzunza, from Mexico, who will have a great boost in his ranking too, moving up around 80 positions from his current position (#140). This was a podium dominated by the athletes from Norceca (North and Central America) and local pentathlete Daniel Santos came close in 4th position, best South-American pentathlete of the day. In a very hot day, top 40 pentathletes Dennis Bowsher (USA) and Joshua Riker-Fox (CAN) missed the podium.Bowsher finished in 5th position while Riker-Fox was 11th. Defending champion Andrei Gheorghe, from Guatemala, was 6th and current South-American champion Emmanuel Zapata (ARG) had a disappointing 16th position because of a poor combined event.

Brazilian Daniel Santos confirmed his favouritism in first event of the day, with 27 wins in 31 bouts. Santos is a national champion in epeé fencing. The defending champion Andrei Gheorghe, from Guatemala, was the second best fencer of the day, with 23 wins, and it looked like he wouldn't have much trouble to defend his title after a great start. Argentinian Zapata also started well the day, notching 19 wins, just like Jonathan Ortega, from Mexico.

In the swimming pool, Mexican Jorge Inzunza was the fastest of the day with a good performance of 2:03.65. Brazilian Luís Magno was second and American Eli Bremer was third. They both swam under 2:06. Lester Ders, from Cuba, was fourth and American Dennis Bowsher saw himself in a good condition to start the riding after another 5th position in events standings.

The riding ruined the chances of Guatemalan Nikkos Papadopolo, who had troubles and lost 588 points (Nikkos was one of the leaders in the standings then). There were three flawless rides, so eventual champion William Brady , Argentinian Zapata and Dominican Hernandez scored 1200 points. Inzunza, Santos, Gheorghe and Magno lost some precious points in the riding.

Brady had an amazing display in combined event and finished it in 11:35.96 and this way could surpass his opponents and cross the finiah line in first place. Cuban Velazquez showed his consistent performance paid off and was second, while Inzunza managed to be back on track after the disappointing riding and finished in third position and spoil the fun of the local crowd, by denying a podium to Santos, who finished followed closely by Bowsher and Gheorghe. Canadian Christopher Pietruczuk had a good performance in combined event, doing it under 11:40.00, but started the last event quite back and it was only enough to gain some positions and finish in 18th position, same goes to former South-American champion Cristian Bustos, from Chile, who was 15th.

In the team competition, Brady led the Americans to win the title along with Dennis Bowsher and Eli Bremer (Bremer was 9th in individual). For the joy of the crowd, the Brazilian team composed by Daniel Silva, Luís Magno (7th) and junior Willian Muinhos (14th) was second and Mexico grabbed another bronze medal with Inzunza, Jonathan Ortega (10th) and Álvaro Sandoval (13th).

Results: http://www.clicksports.com.br/campeonato-pan-americano-rio-de-janeiro-19nov10/1/


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