12th day of the Pan American Games continues in Chile
From Chile, journalist Eduardo Regonesi updates us on the latest in the 12th day of the Pan American Games. teleSUR
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00:00 In Chile, the 12th day of the Pan American Games Santiago 2003 continues.
00:17 Let's go live with Eduardo Reconesi who will provide the latest details on today's sporting
00:21 events.
00:22 Eduardo tells us about today's sporting events in the Pan American Games.
00:30 Hello good afternoon we're here live in Santiago, Chile and we have this quick recap of the
00:35 sport action today.
00:37 Judo is finishing up right now there's 12 total matches that are going on, they're handing
00:42 out medals.
00:43 This is going on right now so of course tonight we will have all the results for you guys.
00:49 In tennis, women's singles finals Argentina defeated Peru for the bronze medal early this
00:55 morning and tonight there's two very important games.
00:58 Brazil and Argentina will compete on the female side for the gold medal while Chile will compete
01:03 with Argentina on the men's side also for gold.
01:07 Let's talk about open water swimming 10k on the women's meet.
01:11 It happened earlier today United States won the gold, Brazil secured bronze and silver
01:16 on women's open water swimming 10km.
01:20 The men are competing right now in the same sport.
01:24 The bronze and gold medal match in women's basketball are happening tonight.
01:28 Argentina will play Cuba at 5pm and later on Colombia will face Brazil at 8pm.
01:34 All this happening just in a couple of hours.
01:37 Now let's talk about the big story today, the big controversy that happened on the women's
01:41 20k race walk.
01:44 It was a very strange day, it's probably the biggest controversy here in Santiago 2023
01:49 and it's going to be the big controversy of the tournament.
01:52 7am the women started running and by the first lap they realized that something was off.
01:59 The distance was shorter than it was supposed to be.
02:01 At the end they did a study and the field, the court where they were running, it's 200
02:06 meters shorter than it should have been.
02:09 So if you add up on a 20km race, when there is 200 meters less of race, the athletes ended
02:17 up competing, they ended up running around 17-18km.
02:22 So this is a huge difference, a huge upset for the athlete.
02:26 What is going to happen now?
02:27 Well, first of all, at a local level, the Chilean authorities already started pointing
02:34 the finger.
02:35 The name according to them is the Pan American Athletic Association.
02:39 They are the ones who are supposed to check, to inspect and make sure that everything is
02:44 in correct order.
02:45 Chilean authorities say that they have nothing to do, it's all about the Pan American Athletic
02:49 Association, they are the responsible ones.
02:52 In terms of the athletes, what's going to happen to the winners?
02:55 Let's refresh, Peru won a gold medal, Ecuador got silver and Peru in the female side also
03:02 got the bronze medal.
03:03 They are going to keep their medal, they are still Pan American champions.
03:07 What happens is that the score, the time that they obtained this morning is not going to
03:12 count, it's not going to be valid.
03:14 That's very bad for them, but the worst part is that this event, by having a good time
03:19 here you could have qualified for the Tokyo Olympics 2024.
03:24 So most of the athletes came to Chile with that in mind, to compete, to win the gold,
03:28 to qualify to Tokyo 2024, but that sadly is not going to happen, at least on the women's
03:33 side.
03:34 On the men's side, this got fixed, it took around 30 minutes, it got delayed, the competition
03:39 instead of starting at 9.30 it started at 10, but the men were able to fix the length
03:44 of the field and the race went on just as it should have been from the first place.
03:49 Ecuador got first place, Brazil second and Mexico got on the podium with the bronze,
03:54 first time for Mexico in 20 years in this discipline.
03:58 So a bit of a controversy, gladly for the men it was fixed, sadly for the women they
04:04 are going to go home with the medals, but with no score, with no final score or valid
04:08 score for the Olympics especially.
04:11 This is it for now, we are live in Santiago, I'll go back with you guys in the studio.
04:16 Thank you Eduardo for the latest information on what is happening at the Pan American Games,
04:21 we're going to keep in touch.