Cuba, Guatemala and Venezuela took the last team slots in the qualifier for the Santiago de Chile Pan American Games at the Copa Merengue in Santo Domingo.
It was a close competition with 11 countries participating in the recurve men’s team and eight in recurve women.
The men’s semifinal match featured Cuba against Argentina and Peru against Guatemala.
The match between Cuba and Argentina was defined in tiebreaker arrows with a total of 27-23 in favor of Cuba.
“We had to work hard to qualify for the Pan American Games. We struggled a bit against Argentina but it worked out,” said Javier Alejandro Vega Valle, Cuba’s archer.
Guatemala won their match against Peru in the fourth set 6-2.
The women’s semifinal was between Venezuela and Guatemala and Cuba against El Salvador.
Venezuela won their match in the third set 5-1.
“The performance we had was excellent, we did much more than we expected,” said Nieves Arango, Venezuelan archer. “Our only difficulties were the nerves, the breeze and the heat but with my team we were confident among ourselves.”
Cuba won against El Salvador 5-3 in the fourth set.
The team competition was followed by the individual slots competition.
In the compound there was only one spot available for both men and women.
The men’s final for the spot was between Brandon Gonzalez Vargas of Costa Rica and Luccas Abreu of Brazil.
Abreu opened with a perfect 30 and held the lead against Gonzalez throughout the match to finish 145-142.
The women’s final was between Paola Ramirez of Puerto Rico and Maria Jose Zebadua of Guatemala.
Ramirez built up a point advantage in each series to finish with a solid score of 144 to 141 from Zebadua.
In the recurve men, the four places available went to El Salvador, Ecuador, Venezuela and Guyana.
In the recurve women, the five places available went to Ecuador, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Guatemala and El Salvador.
There is one more qualifying event left for Santiago 2023: the Central American and Caribbean Games in San Salvador, to be held July 1-7.
One place will be awarded in each individual category.
Quota places awarded in Santo Domingo
Recurve Men Teams
Cuba and Guatemala
Recurve Men Individual
El Salvador, Ecuador, Venezuela and Guyana
Recurve Women Teams
Cuba and Venezuela
Recurve Women Individual
Ecuador, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Guatemala and El Salvador
Compound Men Individual
Brazil
Compound Women Individual
Puerto Rico