Pan American Games 2019: United States end on a high with Mixed Relay gold

• Married couple Isaksen and Elgeziry (USA) dominate to win title
• Cuba take second silver of week as bronze goes to Guatemala
• USA lead Mexico and Cuba at top of Pentathlon medal table

The United States finished top of the Pentathlon medal table at the 2019 Pan American Games after Isabella Isaksen and Amro Elgeziry ended the competition on a high with gold in the Mixed Relay.

Married couple Isaksen & Elgeziry (USA) were clear winners on the final day of competition (July 30), enabling the USA to head home from Lima (PER) with two gold and two silver medals.

Cuba earned their third medal of the week after triple medallist Leydi Moya and Jose Figueroa claimed Mixed Relay silver, while Charles Fernandez of Guatemala added to his individual gold medal with a bronze alongside Ximena Dieguez.

UIPM President Dr Klaus Schormann said: “The Mixed Relay provided a spectacular conclusion to a high-quality Modern Pentathlon competition at the 2019 Pan American Games.

“Once again we could see how much the athletes love to compete in the mixed format, which we are promoting for inclusion in the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024.

 “Yesterday we saw great performances from the women, and it was important to see many countries from the Americas taking part – a big increase from the previous Pan American Games in Toronto (CAN).

“After today’s men’s competition, when we look at the nations that won a place, we have the right nations representing us from a sport-political point of view.

“We are very happy that this Pan American Games has been a great success for the people of Peru, the whole South American Olympic society and also for our Union.

“I congratulate Jorge Salas, President of the Pan American and South American Confederations and Neven Ilic, President of PASO, for enabling us to showcase our sport across many days to a huge audience in Lima and across the American continent.”

For the USA, a successful competition also included gold in the Women’s Relay for Jessica Davis and Samantha Achterberg, who had already won individual silver and secured her qualification place for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

The Women’s Relay took place on the penultimate day (July 29) and Cuba (Moya & Eliani Camara) took silver ahead of bronze medallists Brazil (Priscila Oliveira and Isabela Abreu).

Mexico were victorious in the Men’s Relay thanks to the combined efforts of Melchor Silva and Dulio Carrillo, who fended off stern competition from USA (Elgeziry and Brendan Anderson) and Argentina (Sergio Villamayor & Emmanuel Zapata).

The relays followed two thrilling days of individual competition that enabled 10 athletes from the NORCECA and South American regions to secure their tickets to Tokyo.

The successful qualifiers, subject to the UIPM Tokyo 2020 qualification system, were:

• Mariana Arceo (MEX)
• Samantha Achterberg (USA)
• Leydi Moya (CUB)
• Maria Chaves (BRA)
• Lourdes Cuaspud (ECU)
• Charles Fernandez (GUA)
• Esteban Bustos (CHI)
• Sergio Villamayor (ARG)
• Lester Ders (CUB)
• Amro Elgeziry (USA)

The 10 new qualifiers joined African champions Haydy Morsy and Sherif Nazeir of Egypt and the UIPM 2019 Pentathlon World Cup Final winners, Laura Asadauskaite of Lithuania and Joseph Choong of Great Britain, in winning the chance to participate at Tokyo 2020.

Another 16 athletes will secure qualification at the European Championships in Bath (GBR) from August 6-11 and six more athletes will earn their places at the UIPM 2019 Pentathlon World Championships in Budapest (HUN) from September 2-8.

A large group of qualified Pentathlon judges oversaw the competition after attending a UIPM Level 1 Judges Certification Programme (JCP) course in Lima.

While in Lima, Presidents Schormann, Salas and Stull (NORCECA Confederation) took part in the Pan American Confederation Congress, which was also attended by present and former UIPM Vice Presidents, Juan Manzo and Ivar Sisniega, now Secretary General of the Pan American Sports Organisation (PASO).