Chile tops the rowing at Pan American Games

The Abraham sisters from Chile continued to impress. Melita and Antonia Abraham won the women’s pair and were also part of the winning women’s quadruple sculls. The Abraham’s are the 2017 World Rowing Under 23 Champions in the pair. Chile also took gold in the men’s pair with Christopher Kalleg and Abraham brother Ignacio, and in the lightweight men’s four.

The Pan American Games regatta course was at the Albufera Mitad Del Mundo in Huacho, Peru. This rowing course is just 200m away from the coast and it provided beautiful flat water for the length of the regatta.

Medals were spread between nine nations including a silver for Trinidad and Tobago. This went to Felice Chow who finished second to Jessica Sevick of Canada. Forty-two-year-old Chow is an Olympian from Rio 2016. In third was Soraya Jadue of Chile, the 44-year-old Olympian from Sydney, Athens and Beijing.

The success for Chile did not come by chance, but through hard work and the dedication of coach Bienvenido Front leading a group of coaches to ongoing progress over a number of years.

[PHOTO src=”138697″ size=”mediumLandscape” align=”right”]

Cuba also made significant progress. At the last Pan American Games in Toronto in 2015, Cuba gathered two golds, two silvers and three bronze medals. This year in Lima their total count was ten medals. Angel Fournier was the star for Cuba. He won the men’s single sculls, showing that he’s on track for Tokyo 2020 Olympic qualification later this month. But Fournier did not have an easy win. He was pushed hard by Jan Carlos Cabrera of Mexico who finished less than a second behind the Cuban. Brian Rosso of Argentina was third.

Yariulbis Cobas and Aimee Hernandez took gold for Cuba in the women’s double sculls. They will race at the World Rowing Championships later this month in Austria.

Argentina finished second on the medals table with a total of nine medals, three of them gold. This included the men’s eight.

Mexico went home with five medals, Alexis Lopez stroked the lightweight men’s double sculls to gold and also filled in as a replacement in the lightweight men’s four, helping them to win silver. Alan Armenta became the first Mexican to win three consecutive Pan American Games gold medals in the lightweight men’s double sculls. Olympian Kenia Lechuga won gold in the lightweight women’s single sculls.

Uruguay broke a 16-year medal drought by winning the men’s quadruple sculls. Interestingly, in the boat was Leandro Salvagno who was part of the men’s quad that last medalled for Uruguay back in 2003.

The next Pan American Games will be in Curauma, Chile in 2023.   

For full results here. 

Copy thanks to Santiago Fuentes