Mexico, USA and Cuba take all team medals in Pan Am Games

Mexico, USA and Cuba take all team medals in the Pan Games Guadalajara – 21 October 2011 The women's team podium    The team competition of the Pan American Games showed Mexico as the gold medal winner for the first time in the 32 year old history of the sport in the Games.    
Alejandra VALENCIA, Aida ROMAN and Mariana AVITIA proved the best women’s team in the tournament in the match play. They had ranked 1st in the qualification round on Monday and Tuesday with a Pan American Games record of 3988 points. They defeated Colombia (215-204), Cuba (215-197) and the United States (215-204) supported by an enthusiastic crowd that filled the stands of the awesome archery facility built especially for the Games. 
  
The U.S team could not stop the Mexicans and took the silver medal after edging Chile (202-201) and defeating Venezuela (211-204) in their quarter and semifinal matches. The surprise came from the Cuban team, which had qualified in 5th place, but defeated 4th seed Canada in the quarters (199-197) and 3rd ranked Venezuela for the bronze medal (201-198), losing only to Mexico in the semis. 
   
The U.S. men’s team showed why they are the No. 1 ranked team in the world today, and won their matches versus El Salvador (224-220), Cuba (227-215) and Mexico (220-210), to remain unbeatable in nine Pan American Games. Brady ELLISON, Jake KAMINSKI and Joe FANCHIN, the same team that won gold in the London Archery Classic ten days ago, achieved an outstanding average of 9.32 points per arrow in their three matches.
   
Cuba took the bronze after beating Brazil in the quarterfinals (218-211), losing the USA in the semifinals, and defeating the strong Canadian team 217-214 in the match for the 3rd place.
   
The field is now ready for the individual semifinal and medal matches, in which there will be three Mexicans, two Americans, and one archer each from Canada, Venezuela and Colombia.
   
Sergio FONT
World Archery Communication