Mexico won team gold medals in the compound men and women, and recurve women’s events at the 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games in Barranquilla, Colombia, upsetting the host nation two out of three times – only losing the recurve men’s final.
Recurve finals were held on Monday 30 July and the compound finals on Tuesday 31 July, under much rainier conditions.
The Mexican recurve women’s team of Aida Roman, Alejandra Valencia and Ana Paula Vazquez collected Mexico its first gold medal after beating Colombia in three sets, 5-1.
Ernesto Boardman, Luis Alvarez and Jorge Nevarez then fell to Daniel Pineda, Andres Pila and Daniel Betancur, 5-3, to take silver and leave Colombia with gold.
“My teammates did great and we had a lot of trust in each other. We know we can achieve anything we want,” said Pineda to the local media.
In the compound team events, Linda Ochoa-Anderson, Esmeralda Sanchez and Andrea Becerra upset reigning World Archery Champion Colombia by one point, 231-230.
“[This gold] has a huge meaning because we worked really hard for it,” said Linda. “We had a three-week training camp, away from home, to prepare for these Games and it has proven worthy.”
“We knew the final was going to be against Colombia and that it was going to be tough, so we had to trust ourselves as a team and shoot strong ends.”
The Mexican women stayed in Merida, Yucatan, an area in the south of Mexico with similar conditions to Barranquilla’s high temperatures, humidity and strong winds, to prepare for the Games.
The compound men’s team gold medal match was between Mexico and El Salvador.
Mexico’s Miguel Becerra, Antonio Hidalgo and Romeo Trevino were one point down after the first end, 58-57. They then matched Roberto Hernandez, Gerardo Rivas and Miguel Veliz with a perfect 60 points in the second, and then 58 points in the third.
In the fourth and final end, El Salvador had a miss. It gave Mexico the chance to secure gold, 234 points to 224.
Cuba’s recurve teams took both bronze medals. El Salvador’s compound women and Colombia’s compound men also finished in third place.
The 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games takes place in Barranquilla, Colombia on 29 July to 3 August.
