Seven days away from the Pan American Games, the beach volleyball stadium and the speed skating track of the Costa Verde – San Miguel venue were officially delivered to their respective national federations. Everything is now ready for the multi-sport celebration to start.
COPAL president, Carlos Neuhaus, accompanied the mayor of San Miguel, Juan José Guevara; the head of the Peruvian Skating Federation, Manuel Veaizan; and Peruvian Volleyball Federation representative, Ronald Herrera, to tour the facilities. The respective agreements were then signed.
“We are encouraging sports in youth with this legacy, which will remain for future generations. The stages are 100% complete and ready to welcome all delegations and prove that we are good hosts. I am so relieved that we have fulfilled this mission,” said Neuhaus.
The infrastructure in Costa Verde is already available to Peruvian team members to complement their training for the largest multi-sport event in the Americas. Beach volleyball will be the first sport to be contested on July 24, with the match between the Canadian and Nicaraguan women’s teams.
“We are happy that Lima 2019 has realized a dream after more than five years. We had many setbacks and difficulties since we did not have a sports facility with the necessary conditions to carry out the speed skating race. Although we have excellent athletes, we had to wait until Sunday to use a bike lane. Now we will start managing our future,” said Veaizan.
COSTA VERDE SAN MIGUEL VENUE
The venue of the district of San Miguel is a partially accessible space with trails, ramps, accessible toilets and seats for athletes and spectators. The capacity in each stage is as follows: BMX circuit (3000 spectators), main beach volleyball stadium (3000 spectators), speed skating track (1000 spectators) and BMX freestyle track (2500 spectators).
Speed skating will be held on August 9 and 10, with the participation of the 40 best skaters in the Americas. Both the women’s and men’s 300 meter individual time trial, 500 meter + distance and 10,000 meter elimination events will be disputed. Bernardo Timothy and Ronaldo Camacho, who participated in the World Rollers Games, are the sole Peruvian representatives debuting at the Pan American Games.
The beach volleyball competition will take place from July 24 to 30, on the two courts in San Miguel. The top 32 duos in the continent will participate in this competition. The system consists of a preliminary round (in a round-robin format and four pools of four teams each), quarterfinals, semifinals, finals and qualifying rounds from fifth to sixteen place.
Alexandra Mendoza and Lisbeth Allca will represent Peru—first place in the U20 South American ranking and fifth place at the 2019 World Beach Volleyball Championships—and will have their first match against El Salvador. Meanwhile, Bruno Seminario and Gabriel Vásquez will be the men’s duo that debuts against the Dominican Republic.
ABOUT LIMA 2019
The Opening Ceremony of the Lima 2019 Pan American Games will be held at the National Stadium on July 26, 2019. This continental event will gather 6648 athletes from 41 countries and delegations from the Americas.
There will be 19 days of competitions and ceremonies, between July 24 and August 11, which will take place in 14 districts of Lima and Callao at various venues like VIDENA, Villa María Sports Center, Callao Regional Village, Villa El Salvador Sports Center, Punta Rocas, among others.
The Lima 2019 Pan American Games will include 39 sports and 61 disciplines, in which athletes will compete for gold, silver and bronze medals. A total of 21 disciplines are qualifiers for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.