Eleven individual places were awarded at the Pan American Championship in Santiago de Chile.
The countries of Argentina, Cuba, Ecuador, U.S. Virgin Islands, Peru, Puerto Rico and Venezuela earned these spots.
Three of the individual places won during the South American Games were no longer available after Brazil and Colombia won team places at the Championships in the recurve women, recurve men and compound women’s categories.
In total, 4 places in recurve men, 4 places in recurve women, 2 places in compound women and a single place in compound men were available in the special qualifying round for the Pan American Games.
Recurve Men
In the quarterfinals of the recurve men’s event, Javier Vega and Hugo Franco, both from Cuba, secured a ticket for their nation. The match was decided in a shoot-off. Javier Vega won the match 5-4 with a 10 on his tiebreaker arrow.
Another country that secured a spot was Puerto Rico by having two archers facing each other in the quarterfinals. Adrian Munoz won the match against teammate Carlos Acevedo 7-3.
Third place went to the U.S. Virgin Islands. Nicolas D’Amour won 6-0 against Camerin Pickering (Bermuda). The last recurve place went to Argentina. Mario Damian Jajarabilla won against Oscar Ticas (El Salvador) 6-2.
Recurve women
Cuba was the first country in this category to secure a place with two archers winning their quarterfinal matches. Elizabeth Rodriguez defeated Camila Perez (Dominican Republic) 6-0. Maydenia Sarduy won against Alondra Rivera (Puerto Rico) 6-4.
The second country to secure a place was Peru. Gianella Hermoza defeated Amanda Kendal-Brown (Trinidad and Tobago) 7-3.
Venezuela’s Daniela Chacon also secured a berth for her country with a 6-4 win over Tatyana Muntyan of the U.S. Virgin Islands. Muntyan also earned a berth by placing 5th in this round of matches.
Compound women
Archers from Puerto Rico, Ecuador and Peru reached the semifinals of the special qualifying round for the Pan American Games. Blanca Rodrigo of Ecuador took the victory by defeating Paola Maria Ramirez of Puerto Rico 147-145.
The second ticket in this category went to Peru. Beatriz Aliaga won 142-136 against Adriana Acevedo of Puerto Rico.
Compound Men
This was the most closely disputed category of the special round due to the only place at stake.
In the semifinals Jean Pizarro (Puerto Rico) and Miguel Becerra (Mexico) faced each other. With a one-point difference Pizarro took the long-awaited victory, 147-146.
Rafael Kawakani (Brazil) faced Bryan Alvarado (Puerto Rico). After the fifth series both archers had a total of 145 points. In the shoot-off both archers shot a 10 but Alvarado’s arrow was closer to the center and secured the place for Puerto Rico.
Pizarro won the first place against his teammate 149-141.
Individual Slots
Compound Men
- Puerto Rico
Compound Women
- Ecuador
- Peru
Recurve Men
- Argentina
- Cuba
- U.S. Virgin Islands
- Puerto Rico
Recurve women
- Cuba
- U.S. Virgin Islands
- Peru
- Venezuela