Brazil Gets a Gold Medal and Three Bronze Awards at the Pan American Open in El Salvador
Raquel Silva reached the first place of the podium, becoming the second time the champion of the competition. Rafaela Barbosa (52kg), Eleudis Valentim (52kg) and Allan Kuwabara (60kg) got the bronze.
On the first day of the Pan American Open El Salvador, Brazil won four medals. Today, June 14th, female athletes of the extra-lightweight categories (48kg), half lighteweight (52kg), lightweight (57kg) and half middleweight (63kg) together with male extra-lightweight (60kg), half middleweight (66kg) and lightweight (73kg) got into action. Considering the four medals won by the country, three were in the half lightweight category (52kg): the highest place went to Raquel Silva and the third places were reached by Rafaela Barbosa and Eleudis Valentim. The third bronze came from the male team, with Allan Kuwabara, from the extra -lightweight category (60kg).
With 15 competitors, the half lightweight category (52kg) was the second most crowded of the competition - the first was the half middleweight (63kg), with 21 athletes - and, besides the champion Raquel Silva, Brazil had three more representatives: Jessica Pereira, Rafaela Barbosa and Eleudis Valentim. With a considerable number of Brazilian female athletes, it could be easy to predict possible fights between the green and yellow member teams.
Before becoming the champion of the Pan American Open El Salvador for the second time- the athlete had won the tournament also last year - Raquel Silva defeated her Brazilian mates Rafaela Barbosa and Eleudis Valentim by ippon, in the qualifying and semi-final respectively, and afterwards she won over the American Angelica Delgado by wazari in the great final.
The victory can be attributed to the pace of the competition in which the Brazilian was inserted. Last weekend, the athlete competed in the Grand Prix of Havana, but she did not manage to climb on the podium. Despite having missed the medal in Cuba, she got more experience from the dispute and from the hard workouts held on the Caribbean island.
"I am coming from a strong training in Cuba and I believe this helped me a lot. I knew all my opponents, but no fight was easy. I wanted to win and thank God everything went well, “the Brazilian said.
Rafaela Barbosa won three of four fights made on Saturday. In the first one, the Brazilian overcame the American Amber Jones. In the second, Raquel Silva was the winner and Rafaela went to repechage in order to get the bronze. After defeating the Mexican Monica Hernandez and the Irish Lisa Kearney by ippon, the Brazilian won the third place of her category.
Eleudis Valentim was stopped in the semi-final by her mate Raquel Silva. Before being defeated, she had overcome Yessica Rivera from El Salvador and Monica Hernandez from Mexico. Since she lost in the semi-final, she went straight to the dispute for the bronze medal and defeated Luz Olvera from Mexico by ippon.
Jessica Pereira started overcoming Fatima Gomez (ESA) but the key decision she did not resist to Lisa Kearney. In the repechage, was defeated by the Mexican Luz Olvera.
Allan Kuwabara, the lightweight (60kg), was doing a good performance until he was defeated in the semi-final by the Swiss Valentin Rota. Before that, he had won the Canadian Charles Breton-Leduc and the American Nicholas Kossor. In the contention for bronze, he defeated the Ecuadorian Jose Romero.
Three other Brazilians fought for the bronze medal, but they eventually left the competition in the fifth place. Regarding the female team, Katherine Campos (63kg) lost to the Mexican Andrea Gutierrez, and the male judoka, Mauro Moura (73kg) was defeated by the Argentinian Alejandro Clara whereas Stanley Torres (73kg) by the Canadian David Ancor.
The Brazilians who also got on the mat today, but did not reach the final block were Rafael Barbosa (60kg), Vinicius Sakamoto Leal (66kg), Lucas Bernardo (66kg), Rayfan Barbosa (66kg), Adriano Rodrigues (66kg), Leandro Cunha ( 73kg), Walbercy Aiva (73kg), Nathália Brigida (48kg), Flavia Gomes (57kg).
According to the coaching supervisor Amadeu Júnior, the competition is a high level one, mainly due to certain countries’ attendance. "Despite being an open competition, competitors such as Israel, Austria and Ireland, made the competition stronger. Moreover, this is a major championship; it is point-worth for the world ranking and it makes the young athletes more experienced and provides them more opportunities."
Tomorrow, starting from 01:00 pm, the mats will be stepped on Barbara Timo (70kg), Claudirene Cezar (+78 kg), Gustavo Assis (81kg), Ricardo Serrão (81kg), Milton Miranda (81kg), Eduardo Bettoni (90kg), Renan Nunes ( 100kg), João Gabriel Schlittler (100kg), Walter Santos (+100 kg) and Ruan Isquierdo (+100 kg).
