Teams named for 2015 Pan Am Games

Racquetball Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee announced Team Canada for the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto next month. The team will be a mix of young and old players. The men are mostly veterans with Vincent Gagnon, Mike Green and Tim Landeryou. Joining them will be Coby Iwaasa, who is the current Canadian Champion in singles and doubles, which he won with Green.

The women are led by veteran Jennifer Saunders along with Canadian Champion and Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour (LPRT) #4 Frédérique Lambert. Michelle Morissette and Christine Richardson round out the women’s team.

We understand that Lambert and Saunders will play Women’s Singles with Morissette and Richardson playing Women’s Doubles, but who of the men will play singles and who doubles is still to be determined.

Gagnon and Landeryou were bronze medalists at the 2011 Pan Am Games in Guadalajara. Gagnon in Men’s Singles and Landeryou in Men’s Doubles with Kris Odegard.

Supporting the team will be Sue Swaine as Head Coach and Michel Gagnon as Assistant Coach.

Team Mexico

We have heard from the Mexican Federation via Twitter that their team will be Alvaro Beltran, Daniel De La Rosa and Javier Moreno on the men’s side with Paola Longoria and Samantha Salas and Susana Acosta as an alternate on the women’s side.

We expect that Beltran and De La Rosa will play Men’s Singles with Beltran and Moreno playing Men’s Doubles, as that’s what they did at the Pan American Championships in April. Longoria and Salas will likely play Women’s Singles and Women’s Doubles with Acosta being on hand if either of them suffer an injury or perhaps to be used in the team portion of the competition.

Mexicans are the defending champions in Women’s Singles (Longoria), Women’s Doubles (Longoria & Salas), Men’s Doubles (Beltran & Moreno) as well as the Men’s and Women’s Team events. With the 2011 gold medalists back on the team in 2015, we expect them to be the favourites to win again, especially as they all won those events earlier this year at the Pan Am Championships.

Team Ecuador

Also, Ecuador has enlisted Sudsy Monchik as their coach for the Pan Am Games, and their players - Fernando Rios, Jose Daniel Alvarez, Veronica Sotomayor and Maria Paz Muñoz have been training with him in New York.

We understand that Monchik will be in Toronto to coach the Ecuador team courtside. As far as we know this is Monchik’s first coaching role in an event like this.

Sotomayor was the silver medalist in Women’s Singles at the Pan Am Championships in April.

The 2015 Pan American Games will be held next month in Toronto, Canada. The racquetball competition of the games will begin July 19 and end July 26. There will be singles and doubles competitions initially from July 19 to July 24, and then a team competition from July 24 to July 26. The doubles competition is a best of three matches on both the Women’s and Men’s sides, where countries go head to head with two singles matches and a doubles match. The order of play in the team competition varies in each round, so doubles, for example, could be the first match or the second or the third.

Team Canada for 2015 Pan American Games

Men’s Players - Vincent Gagnon, Mike Green, Coby Iwaasa and Tim Landeryou

Women’s Players - Frédérique Lambert. Michelle Morissette, Christine Richardson and Jennifer Saunders

Team Mexico for 2015 Pan American Games

Men’s Players - Alvaro Beltran, Daniel De La Rosa and Javier Moreno

Women’s Players - Paola Longoria, Samantha Salas and Susana Acosta

Team Ecuador for 2015 Pan American Games

Men’s Players - Fernando Rios and Jose Daniel Alvarez

Women’s Players - Veronica Sotomayor and Maria Paz Muñoz

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