07 Dec 2011
Guatemala Top Rowing Nation at CA Games
Guatemala topped the medal table of this year’s Central American Games Rowing events which took place on November 25th and 26th in Guatemala City, Guatemala. Tallying eight gold medals and four silver, Guatemala was ahead of El Salvador, Honduras and Panama.
A strong Guatemalan team including Juan Carlo Guevara and Enrique Nanne, who competed in two of this year’s World Cup Events and World Championships, had a lot to answer for in this impressive result. Between them, Guevara and Nanne entered seven out of the eight men’s events in this regatta, and won every one of them.
Guevara doubled up with Oscar Rene Maeda Gudiel in the men’s double. The race was an easy one for Guatemala with Honduras coming in nearly a minute behind, and Panama finishing another full minute behind, in 9:17.22. The Guatemalan crew later went on to win the lightweight men’s double ahead of El Salvador and Honduras.
The lightweight men’s pair was taken by Guatemalans Camey Calito and Alonzo Ayala in 7:36.59 over El Salvador and Honduras.
Guevara and Nanne teamed up to ensure the win in the lightweight men’s quad with over 22 seconds to spare over El Salvador. The race had promised to be an exciting one, with a strong crew from El Salvador, but they were unable to match up to the reigning Pan American Champions. The same crew was challenged again by El Salvador in the men’s quad, and this time had a little less to spare and took nine seconds over its opponent.
A narrow win by El Salvador in the lightweight men’s four ahead of Guatemala added some piquant to the event. Finishing in 6:29.58, the El Salvador crew had a lucky escape as Guatemala came in 15 hundredths of a second behind, granting El Salvador their first men’s gold medal in the events.
The men’s single was another easy win for Guatemala’s Nanne, as he took the race 17 seconds ahead of Junior team member Dirk Peters of El Salvador. Nanne had previously won the lightweight men’s single 17 seconds ahead of Daniel Villacorta from El Salvador and Erick Matamoros from Honduras.
The four women’s events – lightweight quad, single scull, lightweight single scull and lightweight double scull were all brilliantly won by El Salvador whose Ximena Mercedes Marinero Cortes raced in all events.
The Central American Games unite seven countries – Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. The first Games were held in Guatemala in 1973. In 1997, during the last Central American Games, 3080 athletes met in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
The Games take place one year following the Olympic year and are part of a cycle of Games building up to the Olympics. During the second post-Olympic year athletes will compete in the Central American and Caribbean Games in San Salvador, El Salvador. In 2003 – the year preceding the Olympics, the event builds up into the Pan American Games which will be held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.