Top seeds sweep as Colombia tops table at South American Games

Sara Lopez, Camilo Cardona, Daniel Pineda and Graziela Paulino dos Santos secured individual titles at the 2018 South American Games in Cochabamba, Bolivia as Colombia topped the archery medal table.

Lopez, who beat teammate Nora Valdez in the compound women’s final by 12 points, 147 to 135, said taking gold was “a dream come true”.

“The dream of my life is to win as many different events as I can and this South American title is one I was missing in my archery career,” said Sara.

“This is my first time ever at an event like this and I have enjoyed the experience a lot. Living at the athlete village, being in uniform all day and seeing athletes from so many different countries together, is definitely something very exciting.”

Colombians Camilo Cardona and Daniel Munoz went head-to-head for the compound men’s individual title, in a match that Cardona won, 146-145. Chile’s Alejandro Arriagada took bronze.

Recurve men’s top seed Daniel Pineda beat William O’Brien from Peru, Edson Kim from Brazil and teammate Estiven Ramirez to meet Chilean rising star Ricardo Soto in the final.

Pineda won gold in four sets, 7-1.

“This is the pay off for all the hard work we have been doing,” said Pineda. “I think we have a great team. We have shown our level has grown a lot and I am sure we are one of the strongest teams in the Americas.”

In the recurve women’s event, Brazilian women Graziela Paulino Dos Santos and Ana Machado won gold and silver, respectively; Mayra Mendez from Venezuela, the bronze.

Colombia led the archery medal table with a total of 12, of which seven were gold; Brazil came second with four and Argentina third, also with four.

There are two more major mulitsport events upcoming in the Americas. The Central American and Caribbean Games take place in Barranquilla, Colombia on 19 July to 2 August and the Pan American Games are scheduled for Lima, Peru in August 2019.

The 2019 South American Games took place on 2-6 June in Cochabamba, Bolivia.