The Brazilian Judo Ends Its Participation in Toronto 2015 Parapan and Brings Home Five Awards
Deanne Almeida was gold awarded, Wilians Silva and Alana Maldonado won silver and Antonio Tenorio and Arthur Calvacante took the bronze medal. In all there were twelve medals.
The Brazilian judo ended its participation in Toronto 2015 Parapan American Games with seven valid medals: two gold, two silver and three bronze. Additionally, three gold, one silver and one bronze medal were not considered on the medals’ chart because only three athletes competed in each category. On Friday, the last day of competition, there were five more podiums: gold for Deanne Almeida (+ 70kg), silver for Alana Maldonado (70kg) and Wilians Silva (+ 100kg) and bronze for Arthur Cavalcante (100kg) and Antonio Tenorio (90kg).
Most fights were held on a rotating all against all basis. The heavyweight Deanne Almeida defeated the American Sarah Luna and Sarah Chung by ippon and got the gold medal. Due to the maximum number of three, this achievement did not count for the medals chart.
Wilians had to fight four times before getting the medal. He defeated three opponents - the Venezuelan William Monteiro and the Americans Robert Anderson and Steven Mulhern - by ippon. In the gold contention, he did not resist to the Cuban Yangaliny Jimenez and he took the silver.
Alana Maldonado (70kg) made one fight less than her Brazilian counterpart before winning the silver. She started losing against the Mexican Lenia Ruvalcaba but she recovered and in the following fights against the Venezuelan Naomi Suazo and the American Christella Garcia she managed to win by ippon.
Arthur Cavalcante (100kg) lost to the Cuban Yordani Fernandez and the American Myles Porter but he got to the podium thanks to a victory by ippon against Benjamin Goodrich (USA).
The only category who fought at the end of the Parapan Judo according to the keys rules was the middleweight. The highly awarded Antonio Tenorio, four times Olympic champion, had to take part in three matches in the competition. In the quarter-finals, he defeated the Canadian Tony Walby due to a difference of penalties but he lost the semifinal against the Argentinian Jorge Lencina. In the bronze contention, he managed to perform an ippon against the Venezuelan Hector Spinoza.
Brazil won three medals on the first day of competition: gold for Michele Ferreira (52kg) and Karla Cardoso (48kg) and bronze for Luiza Oliano (48kg). On Thursday, August 13th, Abner Nascimento (73kg) and Lucia Araujo (57kg) were gold awarded, Victoria Santos (63kg) took the silver and Harlley Arruda (81kg) won the bronze.
Besides Deanne, Karla’s, Luiza’s, Lucia’s and Victoria’s podiums did not count for the medals final sum. Still, Brazil was ahead of its opponents, followed by Cuba (5 medals- two gold, two silver and a bronze) and Mexico (two gold medals).
