The results of the 2019 Pan American Judo Championships (April 25-28) served as a glimpse of what could be to come at the next Pan American Games, to be held in the same venue in Lima.
The same four countries that since the 2017 edition have led the medal table, again offered the best performances in the recently concluded competition held at the Videna 1 sports complex, this time in the following order: Brazil (4 gold, 8 silver, and 3 bronze medals), Canada (4-2-4), Cuba (3-2-6) and Ecuador (1-0-2); among 28 competing nations.
In accordance with their proven international quality, the Cuban judokas who most shone were those that occupy prominent places in the world ranking. The first on that list, Idalys Ortiz (+78 kg), led the individual competition, despite losing in the team competition, where Brazil beat Cuba 4-3, yielding to Beatriz Souza, who took bronze in the individual play-off.
Iván Silva (90 kg), number three in the world ranking, made use of his support to secure the third gold medal for Cuba, which added to that of Magdiel Estrada (73 kg and 22nd in the world ranking), placed Cuba in third place on the medal table.
Two other outstanding Cuban judokas, Maylín del Toro (63 kg and tenth place worldwide), and Kaliema Antomarchi (78 kg and ninth), saw the possibility of repeating their golden performances of the previous event in Costa Rica fade away, both finishing second in Lima.
Beyond the speedy progress of Brazil, which on the first day of the event reached the top before losing to Canada, and then finally returning to take the lead, several individual competitors earned growing respect for their performances, such as Argentine Paula Pareto (48 kg), Olympic champion at Río de Janeiro 2016, who dealt out four ippons to her opponents, to become the only gold medal winner of her country.
Ecuador’s Lenin Preciado (60 kg), after coming second to Brazilian Eric Tatabarake in 2017, took gold in 2018, and this time was responsible for taking his team to fifth place in the competition. Also outstanding was the Peruvian Juan Postigos, who after his bronze in the 66 kg competition of 2017, ventured into the 60 kg in Lima to secure the same medal.
Among the women, the young Brazilian Larissa Pimenta (52 kg) left Angelica Delgado,of the U.S. with the silver medal, who also came second in 2018. Canada’s Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard (63 kg) knocked Cuba’s Maylín del Toro from the top spot, as part of a Canadian team that also saw stellar performances from Christa Deguchi (57 kg) and Shady Elnahas (100 kg).
The United States, which last year won only one silver and five bronze medals, placing ninth overall, this time progressed to seventh place on the medal table (0-1-3), surpassed by Puerto Rico, which finished fifth (1- 0-1), and Argentina (1-0-1), these two positions decided by their judokas located between the fifth and seventh places.
The 2019 Pan American Judo Championships served as a dry run and offered food for thought for followers of the sport regarding medal possibilities in the lead up to the July Games, set to offer similar performances and results.
