After leading solo the individual
race for over one hour and a half to then loose the medals at the end, Vittoria
Lopes was today on a mission at the Mixed Relay of the Pan American Games: get
Team Brazil on the podium. And she did deliver. She was the anchor woman that
brought home the gold medal with a superb leg, overpassing Team USA, who
crossed the finish line to claim silver, and Team Canada, third on the day.
The second day of triathlon
competition at the 2023 Santiago Pan American Games saw 11 teams facing the
hard weather conditions, on another cold, windy and wet morning in Vina del
Mar. And it was the local hero, Diego Moya (CHI), who charged out of the ice-cold
Pacific Ocean onto El Sol beach in first place, followed closely by Seth Rider
(USA) and Brock Hoel (CAN), while Crisanto Grajales (MEX) and Miguel Hidalgo
(BRA) struggled in the first segment of their race.
Moya was quickly left behind by the
leading duo from Team USA and Team Canada, who charged hard in the first leg to
open a gap of 34 seconds before handing over to their teammates.
Erica Ackerlund (USA) and Emy Legault
(CAN) both showed a fantastic form on the swim and increased their advantage
with Djenyfer Arnold (BRA), who by the time she hoped on her bike, was solo in
the third place, with Mexico, Cuba, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela and Ecuador in a
large group behind her.
But soon after they mounted their
bikes Ackerlund pushed hard to leave Legault behind, and solo she went until
she handed over to Mathew McElroy. Behind him, 24-year-old rookie Liam Donnelly
(CAN) had the race of his life, being called for the team at the last minute
after his teammate Martin Sobey felt sick this morning.
With McElroy leading solo, even after
serving a 10 seconds penalty, Donnelly teamed up with Manoel Messias (BRA)
-also willing to deliver a great race after his eight place on the individual
race- on the short and technical bike loop and the fast run, managing both of
them to even increase the distance with Aram Penaflor (MEX), fighting hard to
try to close the gap with the podium positions.
It was Gina Sereno for Team USA the
one taking the responsibility of the anchor leg, and even though she had a 12
seconds lead, she was quickly catched by Vittoria Lopes (BRA), who produced
another magnificent swim and never looked back.
All smiles, Lopes hit the tape in
first place to give Brazil their second consecutive gold medal at the Mixed
Relay at the pan American Games, after their victory in Lima 2019. “Today we
all raced really well, and I am really glad that I could put behind my
performance of yesterday and deliver a great swim, bike and run. I am really
happy for the whole team”, said Messias.
Sereno managed to stay ahead of
Dominika Jamnicky to claim silver for team USA. “Yesterday the four of us
played on our minds all the possible scenarios, so we came to the race really
well prepared. And I think we all delivered and executed the plan almost
perfectly”, said Ackerlund. “I had such a strong motivation after watching all
my teammates perform that I was pumped. They handed over to me up front and I
couldn’t have asked for a better place to be on, so I just managed to stay
there and hang on for the silver medal”, explained Sereno.
Bronze on the day was for Team
Canada. “We raced really well as a team today, and even though Martin got sick
tonight we managed to deliver a great performance today. I am really proud for
the team and to be able to bring this medal to all the Canadian fans”, said
Hoel.
Team Mexico finished in the fourth
place, while Team Ecuador -Gabriel Teran Carvajal, Elizabeth Bravo, Juan Jose
Andrada Figueroa and Paula Jara- rounded the top five.
Results: Mixed Relay
1.Team Brazil 01:15:08
2.Team United States 01:15:26
3.Team Canada 01:15:36
4.Team Mexico 01:16:52
5.Team Ecuador 01:17:58
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