Santiago de Chile, Oct 23 (EFE).- The blue, white and blue of the Guatemalan flag is nowhere to be seen at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games, nor are the emblems of the Central American country, whose athletes compete without losing enthusiasm. Nevertheless.
The partial modification of the statutes of the Guatemalan Olympic Committee (COG) more than a year ago by the Constitutional Court, the highest court in the country, led to the suspension of sport in that country, so its delegation with more than one hundred athletes participates in Santiago under the neutral flag of Panam Sports.
Team of Independent Athletes (EAI) is the acronym with which these athletes are identified who had to parade without their official uniforms at the opening ceremony last Friday, in which, however, they did show their smiles and sportsmanship and even “Viva Guate” was heard somewhere.
The big mystery for now is what anthem will be played, if any, when a Guatemalan wins a gold medal, since due to the suspension they will not be able to sing that of the Central American country either.
For now, the EAI has achieved a silver medal in women’s individual taekwondo poomsae thanks to María Alejandra Higueros.
In addition, he secured another medal, that of the men’s doubles racquetball, after Edwin Galicia and Juan José Salvatierra beat the Bolivian team 3-1 in the quarterfinals, no small achievement, since they had the world champion Conrrado Moscoso in front, with Kadim Carrasco.
On this day, the racquetball team will play in the semifinals with the Canadian duo made up of Samuel Murray and Coby Iwaasa.
The female duet made up of Gabriela Martínez and María Renée Rodríguez will also face the Bolivians Angélica Barrios and Jenny Daza in the semifinals.
Earlier, Martínez competed in the quarterfinals against Argentina’s María José Vargas, although she lost 0-3.
The EAI has a busy day this Monday in badminton, a discipline in which Lesvin Marroquín and Jonathan Solís advanced to the men’s doubles semifinals after beating the Canadians Kevin Justin Lee and Ty Lindemann by 1-2.
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Nikté Sotomayor was in the women’s individual event, although she lost 2-0 to the American Beiwen Zhang.
Sotomayor will play again in a few hours with Diana Corleto for a place in the women’s doubles semifinal against the Americans Annie and Kerry Xu, something that Kevin Cordón will also seek against the Peruvian Adriano Viale in the men’s singles competition.
One of the most anticipated participations by Guatemala is that of its sailor Juan Ignacio Maegli, who is participating for the sixth time in the Pan American Games.
Maegli, 35, has six Pan American medals in his account, including the three gold medals achieved in Rio 2007, Toronto 2015 and Lima 2019, and his sights are set on him to achieve a podium finish in the sailing competition that begins this Saturday and will end November 5.
(c) EFE Agency
2023-10-23 17:09:16
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