Topic: Pan American Championships

[Shaun Le Conte]

Yeah for sure and today will be a big day for the team 3 lifters to compete.

One country I do not see at all in the results is Mexico. I didn't think they would be a factor but they seem to be completely absent. They had a full team of women at the 2007 Worlds and qualified 2 women to the Olympics, but they had no men's team at all. Anybody know what is going on with them? It's understandable that they sent no women to Pan Ams since they qualified but I thought they might have a men's team. Maybe they have no funding or are just being realistic.

[Walter Bailey]

The full results for the Pan-Ams are up (http://www.iwf.net/iwf/events/results/results_e2.php?placecod=14).  Is anybody up for calculating what Canada and the US ranked?

[Shaun Le Conte]

Guy Greavette just said that USA and Canada ranked top 2 and got 2 lifters!

Way to go Canadians, grats!

[Matt Erdman]

Videos courtesy of Zach Krych:

http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=cactuszachk&p=r

[Shaun Le Conte]

The top 5 countries according to rank included the USA, Canada, Brazil, Argentina and Puerto Rico according to a statement made by Team Canada coach Guy Greavette. Personally I am very surprised that Ecuador did not end up in the top 5. Let's look at their results. You will notice that there was one bombout, and it probably made ALL the difference because otherwise they did pretty well.

In brackets is the placing without Cuba, colombia and Venezuela

62
8(2) VALENCIA Enrique 18.09.1988 ECU 61.47 A 117 142 259
12(6) REYNA Edison 25.01.1986 ECU 61.94 B 113 135 248

69
--- FLORES Ricardo 18.02.1987 ECU 68.90 A 137 --- ---

77
6(3) IDROVO Julio 15.03.1981 ECU 76.06 A 148 165 313

85
7(4) LLERENA Walter 10.01.1973 ECU 84.48 A 140 175 315

94
2(1) GUADAMUD Eduardo 11.06.1986 ECU 92.89 A 165 190 355

105
4(3) BUROV Boris 01.08.1970 ECU 100.34 A 161 180 341

105+
4(2) ARTEAGA Julio 09.03.1986 ECU 124.13 A 165 210 375

There was one lifter that was noticeably absent and that is Cristian Escalante of Chile. He is most memorable for placing first in the 2007 Pan Ams ahead of Casey Burgener in the 105+

[Shaun Le Conte]

One minor change: it was reported that Puerto Rico earned an Olympic spot, that was wrong - it was Ecuador
Team Canada needs to send a box of chocolates to Ricardo Flores because they got lucky

From the IWF news:

Continental Qualification series kick-off 25.03.2008   
       
  The Pan-American Championships, at the same time a qualifier for the Beijing Olympic Games 2008, were organised in Callao (Lima), Peru, with a record number of 18 countries participating, including several countries (CAN, COL, CUB, MEX, USA, VEN) which had already qualified at the two Qualification World Championships in 2006 and 2007.

In a close fight for the Olympic slots, the following teams succeeded to win tickets to the Beijing Olympic Games:

Women: DOM, ECU, PUR, CHI - each with one athlete

Men: USA, CAN with two athletes, BRA, ECU, ARG with one athlete, each.

Visit the Championships website for more information and the IWF website for Results