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Round-up: USA and Mexico dominate Pan Am Championships

27 November 2022

Santiago, Chile

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The Santiago 2022 Pan American Championships produced upsets, shoot-off drama and a series of worthy champions.

Mexico dominated the recurve competitions, taking gold in all three team competitions and top step in the women’s individual thanks to Ana Vazquez.

Brazil’s Marcus D’Almeida upgraded silver to gold in the men’s event. The two-time Olympian, 24, is one of recurve archery’s fastest-rising stars having won silver at the 2021 world championships and Hyundai Archery World Cup gold in Paris in June.

The Mexican compound squad also enjoyed plenty of success with victory in the women’s and mixed team.

But the USA were the dominant force on that side of the championships, taking men’s team gold, mixed team bronze and both individual gold medals on offer.

Californian Paige Pearce, who broke in a new bow days before the competition, walked away with gold from her first World Archery target event of the year.

And one of the biggest shocks of the week in Santiago came in the shape of Nick Kappers‘ win in the men’s individual, the world number 130 downing favourite Miguel Becerra.

Key takeaways

Should Mexico repeat its recurve results at the next Pan American Championships, they will win a full quota for Paris 2024. The countries that win the continental titles in the recurve team events in two year’s time will secure full quotas for the next Olympics. That event will take place in Medellin, Colombia.

If we didn’t know already, Marcus D’Almeida is for real. The Brazilian’s rapid rise showed no sign of stopping in Santiago. He romped to men’s individual gold and with world silver and World Cup stage gold in the back pocket, is now one of the sport’s bonafide stars.

Locking out both individual compound titles, USA must now be considered odds-on favourites to win one of the compound events at the Pan American Games next year. They didn’t win either in its debut in 2019, and this was a great dress rehearsal for the return to Santiago in the autumn.