The Panamerican Championships Seniors will be a test for Lima 2019 and it will take place at the Sports Center 1 at VIDENA between April 24 and April 28. The event will gather the best judokas from 24 countries of the continent and it will help the Organizing Committee to make some key decisions.
Carlos Neuhaus, Lima 2019 executive director, shared the excitement of our athletes during a press conference. “This is an important event because it will allow us to draw conclusions related to the infrastructure and the organizational support in sports. The conclusions will help us improve in preparation for the Games,” he declared.
He also said that the 17 judokas of the Peruvian team will shine during this important competition. Alonso Wong, Juan Miguel Postigos and Yuta Galarreta stand out between the male figures. Meanwhile, Brillith Gamarra will lead the female athletes.
“We know that our athletes will be great representatives. I'm ready to hear the National Anthem and see the athletes win many gold medals. Having this type of events is exciting because the athletes will be the stars of the Games”, mentioned the Lima 2019 Executive Director.
HIGH COMPETITION LEVEL
The Panamerican Championships Seniors will allow athletes to qualify for the Lima 2019 Games and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. This is one of the reasons why Lima will welcome Olympic champions like Paula Pareto from Argentina and Rafaela Silva from Brazil, as well as the world champion, Mayra Aguiar from Brazil. Iván Felipe Silva from Cuba and Antoine Valois-Fortier from Canada are other Olympic medalists attending the event.
Yuta Galarreta aims for the gold: “This is the second most important competition for judo in Peru, after the Lima 2019 Games. I’m training hard in Japan and competing in the Lima Panamerican Open to win as many gold medals as I can,” mentioned the Peruvian champion.
Brillith Gamarra mentioned that this will be a high-level competition with the best athletes of the Americas. “Winning a medal will allow me to obtain more points in the world ranking and have a better position for the Olympic games. That's why I aim to have a better performance before the Lima 2019 Games.”
ABOUT LIMA 2019
The Lima 2019 Pan American Games is an event that will gather 6680 athletes from 41 countries opening on July 26 at the National Stadium. There will be 17 days of competitions which will take place in 14 districts of Lima and Callao at different venues such as 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 62 disciplines, in which athletes will compete for gold, silver and bronze medals. In addition, a total of 23 disciplines are qualifiers for the Tokyo 2020 the Olympic Games.
The Parapan American Games will gather 1890 Para athletes from 33 countries, participating in 17 sports and 18 disciplines. The competitions will take place between August 23 and September 1, 2019. In addition, 14 sports will be qualifiers for Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.