Brazil Ends Its Participation in the Santiago Pan-American Open with Nine Medals

On the competition’s second day, Vinícius Panini (81kg) won the gold whereas Horacio Antunes (100kg) and Dione Barbosa (63kg) the bronze

On Sunday, the second and final day of the Santiago Pan American Open, Brazil won a gold medal with Vinícius Panini (81kg) and two bronze awards with Horacio Antunes (100kg) and Dione Barbosa (63kg). On Saturday, Brazil had already conquered two gold, one silver and three bronze medals. Besides them, Henrique Silva (90kg), João Gabriel Schlittler (100k) and Melina Scárdua (78kg) fought on Sunday and finished in the fifth place.

Vinícius Panini won today’s only gold of Brazil and won all his fights by ippon (perfect stroke). To get the title, the half middleweight Brazilian judoka had to defeat three opponents. In the repechage, he left behind the Chilean Rodrigo Idro and the Colombian Derian Castro. In the final, the Brazilian defeated another Chilean, namely Fernando Salazar.

The competition was not new to Horacio Antunes, who had fought in such an event earlier this year in Buenos Aires. On that occasion, he also finished the competition in the third place. The athlete from Sogipa club seemed happy, but said that he was still thinking about the gold. "I had already defeated the two athletes that fought in the end in Argentina; this is why I feel a bitter taste regarding the gold medal."

Before reaching the podium, Antunes won over the American Ajax Tadehara in the qualifiers, but was defeated by the Mexican Sergio Garcia in the semifinal. In the repechage, the Brazilian won the contention for bronze against the Uruguayan Manuel Bueno.

The only awarded female judoka of this weekend, Dione Barbosa started well her participation in the event. The Brazilian entered four times on the mats from the National Stadium. In the qualifiers, she defeated Yennifer Dominguez from Guatemala and Leilani Akiyama from the United States. In the semifinal she was defeated by Andrea Gutierrez from Mexico in the Golden Score (overtime). Dione Barbosa won the bronze after the victory over Ana Cachola from Portugal, in the final of the repechage.

"It's my first World Cup, I am quite satisfied with my performance, although I expected a better result, but I did a mistake in the wrong a moment. This is a lesson for future competitions, fighting abroad is different and I need to start doing it more often in order to get used to the pace. Now I have to train to get better results. And whenever I have the opportunity to compete abroad, I will seize it. “Dione Barbosa said.

Henrique Silva (90kg), João Gabriel Schlittler (100k) and Melina Scárdua (78kg) also competed for medals, but they were defeated by the Spanish David Ruiz Zajac, the American Ajax Tadehara and the Ecuadorian Diana Chala, respectively, in the contention for bronze. All of them reached the fifth place.  

Check out the attached summaries.