PARC XXVII Pan Am Championships - Preview

The XXVII Pan American Racquetball Championships begin Saturday in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, and there's a large field of competitors going for gold. But one player who is not there is last year's defending gold medalist in women's singles: Paola Longoria of Mexico. No word on why she's absent.

Longoria's absence means the gold medal is completely up for grabs, and several players have a good chance at winning, including Mexico's Samantha Salas Solis and Susana Acosta, as well as Americans Rhonda Rajsich and Janel Tisinger, Maria Jose Vargas, who's representing Argentina, Veronica Sotomayor of Ecuador, Cristina Amaya of Colombia, and Canadians Frédérique Lambert and Jennifer Saunders.

There are 30 women in the women's singles field, which is certainly one of the biggest Pan Am Championship women's entries ever, if not the biggest. It means there are 15 doubles teams, which is certainly the largest doubles field ever.

There are also 30 competitors on the men's side in singles and 15 doubles teams. We believe this is the first time that the women's and men's competition have the same number of competitors.

Polo Gutierrez of Mexico is back to defend the gold medal he won last year in Cali, Colombia. But Jose Rojas of the USA is likely the favourite to win gold, as Rojas is ranked 4th on the International Racquetball Tour (IRT).

Other strong players in the field include Fernando Rios of Ecuador - silver medalist in 2012 - Canadian Vincent Gagnon, Bolivian Carlos Keller and Colombian Alejandro Herrera.

The full roster of men's countries is Mexico, Venezuela, Ecuador, USA, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Uruguay, Argentina, Canada, Chile, Puerto Rico, Bolivia, Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras. The women's countries are the same except there are women from Panama and not Uruguay.

The Pan American Championships has two parts. A preliminary round will be played first to determine seeding for an elimination round, similar to the FIFA World Cup. The preliminary round will be played on Saturday, Sunday and Monday with the elimination round beginning Wednesday.

There will be live streaming of the elimination round semi-finals and finals on April 18 and 19 via the IRT Network.

XXVII Pan American Racquetball Championships
Santa Cruz, Bolivia - April 12-19, 2014

Women's Competitors

Maria Jose Vargas (Argentina)
Véronique Guillemette (Argentina)
Cecilia Ceruetti (Argentina)

Frédérique Lambert (Canada)
Jennifer Saunders (Canada)
Josée Grand'Maître (Canada)

Carla Muñoz (Chile)
Maria Paz Riquelme (Chile)

Cristina Amaya (Colombia)
Carolina Gomez (Colombia)

Melania Sauma (Costa Rica)
Sofia Soley (Costa Rica)

Maria Cespedes (Dominican Republic)
Merynanyelly Delgado (Dominican Republic)

Jenny Daza (Bolivia)
Carola Loma (Bolivia)
Natalia Mendez (Bolivia)

Veronica Sotomayor (Ecuador)
Maria Paz Muñoz (Ecuador)

Maria Renee Rodriguez (Guatemala)
Gabriella Martinez (Guatemala)

Pamela Sierra (Honduras)
Paula Padilla (Honduras)

Samantha Salas Solis (Mexico)
Susana Acosta (Mexico)

Irene Caballero (Panama)
Giulia Barboni (Panama)

Raquel Perez (Puerto Rico)
Johan Martin (Puerto Rico)
Letty Maldonado (Puerto Rico)
Mary Diaz (Puerto Rico)

Rhonda Rajsich (USA)
Janel Tisinger (USA)

Mariana Tobon (Venezuela)
Mariana Parades (Venezuela)

Men's Competitors

Daniel Maggi (Argentina)
Shai Mazuri (Argentina)
Fernando Kurzbard (Argentina)
Pablo Kurzbard (Argentina)

Ricardo Monroy (Bolivia)
Roland Keller (Bolivia)
Carlos Keller (Bolivia)
Conrado Moscoso (Bolivia)

Tim Landeryou (Canada)
Pedro Castro (Canada)
Vincent Gagnon (Canada)
Coby Iwaasa (Canada)

Francisco Troncoso (Chile)
Mauricio Suarez (Chile)
Rodrigo Salgado (Chile)

Sebastian Franco (Colombia)
Alejandro Herrera (Colombia)

Joaquin Solera (Costa Rica)
Pablo Sauma (Costa Rica)
Andrés Solera (Costa Rica)
Felipe Camacho (Costa Rica)

Luis Perez (Dominican Republic)
Junior Rodriguez (Dominican Republic)

Fernando Rios (Ecuador)
Jose Daniel Alvarez (Ecuador)
Jose Daniel Ugalde (Ecuador)

Pedro Manolo Sandoval (Guatemala)
Edwin Garcia (Guatemala)

Selvin Cruz (Honduras)
Sergio Baires (Honduras)
Miguel Flores (Honduras)

Daniel De La Rosa (Mexico)
Edson Martinez (Mexico)
Polo Gutierrez (Mexico)
Andree Parrilla (Mexico)

Miguel Santiago (Puerto Rico)
Jayson Jordan (Puerto Rico)
Jared Torres (Puerto Rico)
Fernando Rivera (Puerto Rico)

Gustavo Farrel (Uruguay)
Diego Vognione (Uruguay)

Jose Rojas (USA)
David Horn (USA)

Cesar Castillo (Venezuela)
Cesar Castro (Venezuela)
Ezequiel Paez (Venezuela)

Follow the bouncing ball....