The 2011 Pan-American Games (Games) began yesterday in Guadalajara, Mexico and will end Sunday, October 30, with the track and field program scheduled from Sunday, the 23rd through the 30th. The 16th installment of the Games will feature 41 countries from the Americas and is headlined by participants from Cuba, Jamaica and the USA. Earlier this week, the track was completed and was given IAAF Certification.
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Ridley Ingram photo
Cuba's triple jumper Alexis Copello
on the runway in Daegu.
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The Pan-Am Games are held once every four years, the year prior to the Olympics. The timing of the Games could not be worse. Enclosed between the 2011 Daegu World Championships and the London 2012 Olympics, the 2011 Pan Games is obviously scheduled too late in the season when all the major championships have ended (Diamond League, World Championships, etc.) and coincides with the start of training for the top-tier athletes, who are about to refocus on their destination: London 2012. Of note, is the Racers Track Club (Kingston, Jamaica), where athletes including Yohan Blake and Usain Bolt are scheduled to report to camp this week to begin training. In addition, most of the collegians in the USA and the Caribbean are in school, focusing on academics, as well as preparing for the start of the indoor season set for late December / early January.
Some Top Athletes Missing
Several leading track and field teams including USA, Jamaica, and Trinidad have named teams to the Pan-Am Games, and obviously missing from the list of participants are Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake, Walter Dix, LaShawn Merritt, Carmelita Jeter, and Veronica Campbell-Brown, among several others. These athletes have just concluded a rigorous 2011 season. So, except for Cuba with 110m hurdles world record holder Dayron Robles at the helm, we will see a group of mostly lesser known athletes, who are now given the opportunity to shine on the international stage.
Cuban analysts have predicted that Cuba could take home between seven and nine gold medals. Among the favorites for Cuban gold are Robles, javelin thrower Guillermo Martínez, discus-thrower Yarelis Barrios, hammer-thrower Yipsi Moreno and perhaps shot-putter Misleydis González. Two rising starts in 2011, pole-vaulter Lazaro Borges and decathlete Leonel Suárez, are heavily tipped to capture their first Pan-American medals.
While World triple-jump champion Yargelis Savigne suffered an injury at the Daegu World Championships, Alexis Copello and Mabel Gay in the triple-jump and Jorge Fernández in the discus could also climb the medal podium.
From the English-speaking Caribbean is veteran Kim Collins of St. Kitts & Nevis, the 2011 World 100m bronze medalist. Collins will be in Guadalajara to represent his country, multi-tasking as a competitor in the men’s 100m and 4x100 relay and as coach for the St. Kitts & Nevis’ sprint relay team that took bronze in Daegu.
Collins ran the back stretch in that race.
The 2011 track season came to a climatic end, highlighted by the Jamaican men 4x1 relay team lowering its own world record from 37.10secs to 37.04 and the scintillating 200m (19.26) performance by Yohan Blake at the Brussels Diamond League on September 16.
While true track fans will tune-in to support and cheer-on their nations’ athletes, the excitement and anticipation that was over-powering during pre-Daegu has been visibly absent. However, it is up to the lesser known participants to put on a good show that will force average and casual track fans to take note.
PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES:
Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Cayman Islands, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Netherland Antilles, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, St. Lucia, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago, United States, Uruguay, U.S. Virgin Islands, Venezuela.