Alison dos Santos at the South American Games in Santa Fe (© Sebastian Lasquera)
Alison dos Santos delighted the crowd with two meeting records, while his fellow Brazilian Caio Bonfim prevailed in the race walk and Chile’s Martina Weil erased her mother’s 32-year-old Games mark during the first two days of athletics at the South American Games.
After an unforgettable and unbeaten hurdles season that saw him break the 400m hurdles world record, Dos Santos opted for the flat 400m for the competition in in Santa Fe, Argentina. He opened his competition on Tuesday (22) by comfortably winning his heat in 44.99, a Games record and the fastest time ever recorded on Argentinean soil.
A day later, he lowered his Games standard to 44.61 to win gold ahead of Venezuela’s Javier Gomez (45.48) and Chile’s Martín Kouyoumdjian (45.99).
“I love being here and competing in Argentina. It’s been a dream season, and I am happy to finish it in South America,” said Dos Santos, who will return to the track on Friday for the 4x400m final.
In the women’s 400m, Weil sped to a 50.45 victory to improve the 32-year-old Games record of 51.31 held by her mother, Colombia’s Ximena Restrepo.
“These are my favourite Games. I love competing here. We (Chile) did so well today. We are coming,” said Weil, who upgraded her silver from four years ago. She was immediately hugged by her parents Restrepo and Chile’s four-time Olympian Gert Weil, himself a three-time South American Games winner, including at the second edition in Santa Fe in 1982.
World champion Bonfim opened a successful day for Brazil on the second day of athletics on Wednesday (23). Sitting last in the first 5000m of the men’s half marathon race walk on the track, the Olympic silver medallist was still 14 seconds behind the lead pack at the halfway mark. He caught up with the leaders just before the 13km mark and sped up to a South American record on the track of 1:22:31.
He led a string of national records by Ecuador’s David Hurtado (1:22:38), Colombia’s Cesar Herrera (1:23:56) and Peru’s Luis Campos (1:24:45). Jordy Jimenez joined his compatriot Hurtado on the podium with bronze in 1:23:26.
“Race walking in South America is world-class. I had a similar time at the 20km mark (1:18:34) when I won the World Championships in Tokyo,” said Bonfim.
On the opening day, Colombia’s Ronal Longa and Venezuela’s Orangy Jimenez clinched the 100m titles.
Longa, who became South American record-holder with 9.85 at the Pan American Championships on home soil, cruised to a comfortable victory in 10.10, while Jimenez completed a golden day by running 11.39 in cool conditions. Earlier in the day, she ran the second leg in the gold medal-winning team in the mixed 4x100m relay.
Both Longa and Jimenez led the 200m qualifiers and will aim for a sprint double on Thursday.
Four other records fell during the first two days of competition. Uruguay’s Santiago Catrofe became the first athletics champion in Santa Fe with his 28:16.79 performance in the 10,000m. Chile’s Claudio Romero improved his own Games discus throw mark twice, winning with a 65.33m effort. Brazilian record-holder Vitoria Sena Alves set a new standard in the 100m hurdles of 13.05.
In her debut season over 10,000m on the track, 2024 Olympic marathoner Mary Zeneida Granja led a hotly contested final with 32:29.50, erasing the 36-year-old Ecuadorian record for the distance.
Granja led all other six woman across the finish line with personal bests, including Peru’s Pan American Games champion Luz Mery Rojas (32:32.00) and Argentina’s Nelida Peñaflor (32:34.35).
The home crowd erupted in joy when Micaela Levaggi overtook all rivals on the home stretch in the women’s 1500m to win Argentina’s first athletics gold in Santa Fe.
“You made all the difference tonight. This gold medal belongs to you, too,” said Levaggi, who will aim for an unprecedented distance triple at the Games. The South American 1500m record-holder will contest two more finals: the 5000m on Thursday and 3000m steeplechase on Friday.
All individual and relay winners also secured automatic qualification to the 2027 Pan American Games, to be held Lima, Peru.
The athletics competition of the 13th South American Games will end on Friday (25).
Javier Clavelo Robinson for World Athletics
