All Go at the Pan Am Games

They happen once every four years and always in the year before the Olympic Games. They include all north and south American nations and this year the smallest nation ever to host these games, the Dominican Republic, brings 42 countries together competing in 35 different sports. Rowing is one. Rincon Dam in Bonao is the venue.

The opening ceremony on Friday featured 10,000 performers in front of a 30,000 plus strong audience in the capital city of Santo Domingo. Rowing began three days later with heats and repechages on Monday. These will continue through to Wednesday then A and B-finals will be mingled over Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Fifteen countries are participating in rowing with the most entries coming from Cuba and the United States who have boats in all of the 14 classes.

So far Cuba (Marrero) and the United States (Melissa Rice) have won their respective heats of the lightweight women’s single. Argentina (Sergio Fernandez) recorded the fastest qualifying time in the men’s single with Cuba (Yoennis Hernandez) also advancing. Brazil (Alexandre Soares and Gibran Cunha) and Argentina (Walter Naneder and Marcos Morales) will be the favourites in the men’s pair after winning their respective heats and in the women’s double Canada (Marilyn Taylor and Stacey Norwood) and Cuba (Yadira Alonso and Maira Gonzalez) qualified by winning their heats.

The men’s quad, four and eight will be raced as a straight final as well as the lightweight women’s quad. Some countries will be using the Pan Am Games as a step towards team selection for next year’s Olympic Games while other countries send their ?B? team leaving the A team to prepare for the Rowing World Championships at the end of this month in Milan.