At the Contact Sports Center—which previously saw Mexico’s taekwondo players celebrate—the icing on the green cake was put this time by Rafaela Silva, with her triumphant return after the doping suspension that deprived her of the title in Lima 2019.
After becoming a two-time world champion and an Olympic gold medalist, the stellar judoka who emerged from the Rio favela Cidade de Deus was happy to finally win a Pan American gold after beating Argentina’s Brisa Gómez like a hurricane in the 57 kg .
“I am very happy with the gold medal. It was my goal here and now I want to fight to also win as a team. “I am very happy to represent Brazil,” she said, already surrounded by journalists.
Before her, one after another, all the Brazilians had paraded with medals around their necks, after winning four of the five divisions that animated the first date of judo in the Chilean capital, even doubling in some like the 48 kg, where Alexia Nascimento and Amanda Lima made it one-three on the podium.
They were joined by Larissa Pimenta and Michel Augusto, champions of the 52 and 60 kg in that order, while William Lima took bronze in the 66, the only category that did not have a finalist from the South American giant.
Brazil has long stood out as a judo power on the continent: in Toronto 2015 it won 13 medals (5-2-6) and in Lima nine (4-1-4); but everything indicates that in Santiago their “harvest” will be much larger.
If he succeeds, he could highlight that the sun on the tatami right now rises in Japan, but sets in the country of the aurigreen flag.
jha/abc
2023-10-29 00:22:10
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