Hammer champion Ethan Katzberg at the Pan American Games (© AFP / Getty Images)
Venezuela’s Joselyn Brea completed an unprecedented 1500m-5000m double and Canada’s Ethan Katzberg made an impressive debut as world hammer champion as the athletics action of the 19th Pan American Games concluded with another sellout crowd at the National Stadium in Santiago de Chile.
After clinching the 5000m title on Thursday, Brea lined up for the 1500m on Friday (3), staying in close contact with race leader Emily Mackay. With 120m to go, Brea moved past the US athlete and sprinted to the finish line.
Cuba’s Daily Marlins Cooper went past Mackay and came close to Brea, but the latter held on to win her second individual title in Santiago in 4:11:80, eight hundredths of a second ahead of the Cuban.
The 29-year-old Brea became the sixth woman to claim an individual double at the Games, the first one from her country and the first one in 12 years. With no gold medals for Venezuelan women before the 2015 Games, Brea has maintained a successful streak of victories started by Rosa Rodriguez with hammer gold in Toronto in 2015 and followed by world and Olympic champion Yulimar Rojas in the triple jump in Lima in 2019.
“I am very emotional. I am relieved I made it, that my hard work paid off,” Brea told PanAm Sports. “I knew it would be a tough race as I am tired from yesterday (Thursday), but I had to save some energy for the final. I trust myself and thank God, I managed to win a second gold.”
It has been a breakthrough season for Brea, who broke three South American records in the mile, 3000m and 5000m, the second one by 10 seconds and the latter by more than half a minute.
Joselyn Brea holds off Daily Marlins Cooper and Emily Mackay to win the 1500m at the Pan American Games (© AFP / Getty Images)
Three World Championships medallists from Budapest also highlighted the athletics tournament. Katzberg, who at 21 became the youngest ever men’s hammer medallist at the World Championships when he got gold with a national record 81.25m throw, made his first appearance after claiming that title in the Hungarian capital.
He had another impressive display in Chile, launching the implement 80 metres or farther four times and improving the 12-year-old Games record three times, eventually to a best of 80.96m - the second-best winning mark of his career after his performance in Budapest.
Flor Denis Ruiz Hurtado, the world silver medallist in the javelin, secured her first continental gold with her opening 63.10m effort, to win ahead of Bahamas’ NCAA champion Rhema Otabor (60.54m), who surpassed 60 metres for the first time. Ruiz Hurtado, sixth in Lima in 2019, gave Colombia its third athletics title in Santiago.
Cuba’s Lazaro Martinez, the Budapest 2023 triple jump silver medallist, gave himself a nice birthday present in Santiago with an opening jump of 17.19m. After a foul in the second round, he passed the remaining rounds to leave Brazil’s Almir dos Santos (16.92m) and his fellow Cuban and World Championships bronze medallist Cristian Napoles (16.66m) to battle for silver and bronze.
The final day of competition made history as the marathon race walk mixed relay was contested for the first time. The event, featuring a male and a female athlete from eight nations walking two legs each, will make its Olympic debut in Paris in 2024.
Brazil’s two-time World Championships bronze medallist Caio Bonfim and Ecuador’s 2019 Pan American Games gold medallist Brian Pintado led the first leg of 11.195km. Pintado’s teammate, Glenda Morejon who was runner-up in the individual event a week earlier, moved away from Brazil’s Viviane Santana and established a sizable lead of 1:22 at the halfway mark over Peru, led by 2022 world champion Kimberly Garcia.
Pintado increased the lead to 1:40 at the end of the third leg and Morejon finished strong with a solid 11km in the fourth and final leg to seal the overall victory in 2:56:49. Pending ratification procedures, it would be a world mark for this new Olympic event.
Garcia, the individual winner last weekend, made up a 61-second deficit and overtook Santana to secure silver for Peru in 3:01:14, ahead of Brazil (3:02:14).
Glenda Morejon celebrates victory for Ecuador in the Pan American Games marathon race walk mixed relay (© AFP / Getty Images)
In earlier stadium action, Brazil’s world indoor shot put champion Darlan Romani overtook Mexico’s Uziel Munoz (21.15m) in the fifth round with a 21.36m toss to successfully defend his title from Lima in 2019. Munoz and USA’s Jordan Geist (20.51m) again joined him on the podium as they did four years ago, with the Mexican improving his bronze medal from the previous editions.
Cuba’s two-time World Championships medallist Luis Enrique Zayas joined Romani as a successful defending champion. In the high jump final, Zayas was the only man to clear 2.27m on his third attempt to leave previous leader Luis Joel Castro of Puerto Rico to settle for silver.
In his fifth Pan American Games, 2007 world champion Donald Thomas cleared 2.24m on his third attempt to achieve his fourth Games medal, including the 2011 gold, to add to an illustrious career for the 39-year-old Bahamian.
Argentina’s 36-year old German Chiaraviglio joined Thomas in competing at his fifth consecutive Games and he added a third medal with silver in the pole vault.
In other superlative performances, world and Olympic finalist Gianna Woodruff became Panama’s first woman to win the continental crown in Games history, with her 400m hurdles victory in 56.44.
In her second 3000m steeplechase race of the year, South American record-holder Belen Casetta upgraded her bronze from Lima in 2019 to gold in Santiago with a 9:39.47 performance, a Games record. She became Argentina’s fifth woman to claim the continental title and the first in 24 years.
A total of four athletes successfully defended their titles: Peru’s Cristhian Pacheco (marathon), Costa Rica’s Andrea Vargas (100m hurdles), Romani (shot put) and Zayas (high jump).
Other winners were Cuba’s Sahily Diago (2:02.71) and Venezuela’s Jose Antonio Maita (1:45.69) in the 800m, Jamaica’s Jaheel Hyde (49.19) in the 400m hurdles, Canada’s Jean-Simon Desgagnes (8:30.14) in the 3000m steeplechase, and the Brazilian men (3:03.92) and the Cuban women (3:33.15) in the 4x400m. Marileidy Paulino, the 400m world champion, anchored the Dominican Republic to silver for her fourth medal in Santiago after 200m gold, mixed 4x400m gold and 4x100m bronze.
Four new champions got gold for USA: Rachel McCoy (1.87m) in the high jump, Matthew Ludwig (5.55m) in the pole vault, Curtis Thompson (79.65m) in the javelin and Isai Rodriguez (28:17.84) in the 10,000m.
With three wins on the final day, USA topped the athletics medal table with 25 medals (8 gold, 5 silver and 12 bronze), ahead of Brazil (7-10-6), Cuba (7-6-5), Canada (4-3-2), the Dominican Republic (3-3-3), Colombia (3-2-2), hosts Chile (3-2-1), Venezuela (3-2-0) and Peru (3-1-3). A total of 24 of the 42 Pan Am Sport member nations won at least one medal.
The 2027 Pan American Games are scheduled to be held in Barranquilla, Colombia.
Javier Clavelo Robinson for World Athletics
