Team Standings & Summary - XXX Pan American Championships

The XXX Pan American Championships concluded Saturday in San Jose, Costa Rica, where Mexico won three of the four gold medals. If you’d known ahead of time that Mexico would win 3 of 4 events, the event you’d thought Mexico would win for sure was the even that they lost: Women’s Singles. Paola Longoria of Mexico had won 10 international events dating back to 2011 at the Pan American Championships, when the USA’s Rhonda Rajsich defeated her in the semi-finals.

Six years later Rajsich did it again, and her defeat of Longoria prevented the Mexican gold medal sweep.

Longoria did win gold in Women’s Doubles with Samantha Salas, and they are two of three winningest players at the Pan American Championships. Longoria has won gold Women’s Singles seven times and five times in Women’s Doubles, while Salas has won seven gold in Women’s Doubles. (note: Jackie Paraiso has the second most Pan American Champoinship gold medals winning one in Women’s Singles & nine in Women’s Doubles).

Rajsich’s gold was her fifth at the Pan American Championships, and she’s tied for fifth most all time with fellow American Cheryl Gudinas.

Mexican Polo Gutierrez won Men’s Doubles with Alejandro Landa, and that put his career gold medal count at four from the Pan American Championships, which ties him with countryman Alvaro Beltran, and is one behind the men’s leaders Javier Moreno of Mexico and American Bill Sell, who both have five. Gutierrez previously won gold at the Pan American Championships in 2011 and 2013 playing Men’s Doubles with Moreno, and he also won Men’s Singles in 2103.

Six men other men have won both singles and doubles at the Pan American Championships: Beltran, Sell, Mike Green (Canada), Daniel De La Rosa (Mexico), Ricardo Monroy (Bolivia) and Landa, who now has three Pan American Championships, which puts him into a tie with five other players on the all time list.

Team Standings

Mexico finished first in the team standings in Men’s and Women’s and Overall categories, and the USA were the runners up in all three categories. In the Men’s standings Bolivia was 3rd with Canada 4th, while in the Women’s standings Ecuador was 3rd and Guatemala 4th. Overall, Bolivia was 3rd with Ecuador and Guatemala tying for 4th.

Future Events

Announced during the event broadcasts was that the International Racquetball Federation (IRF) Junior World Championships will be in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA in November. Also, the XXXI Pan American Championships will be March 24-31, 2018, and although the location hasn’t been finalized Temuco, Chile was mentioned as the most likely site.

XXX Pan American Racquetball Championships
San Jose, Costa Rica - April 8-15, 2017

Women's Singles

Gold - Rhonda Rajsich (USA)
Silver - Paola Longoria (Mexico)
Bronze - Samantha Salas (Mexico), Gabriela Martinez (Guatemala)

Women's Doubles

Gold - Paola Longoria & Samantha Salas (Mexico)
Silver - Maria Paz Muñoz & Veronica Sotomayor (Ecuador)
Bronze - Sheryl Lotts & Rhonda Rajsich (USA), Andrea Martinez & Gabriela Martinez (Guatemala)

Men's Singles

Gold - Alejandro Landa (Mexico)
Silver - Charlie Pratt (USA)
Bronze - Andres Acuña (Costa Rica), Javier Mar (Mexico)

Men's Doubles

Gold - Polo Gutierrez & Alejandro Landa (Mexico)
Silver - Jake Bredenbeck & David Horn (USA)
Bronze - Ramon De Leon & Luis Perez (Dominican Republic), Roland Keller & Conrrado Moscoso (Bolivia)

Team Standings

Women’s (points)

1. Mexico - 432
2. USA - 316
3. Guatemala - 228
4. Ecuador - 218
5. Bolivia - 128
6. Chile - 122
7. Argentina - 118
8. Colombia - 102
9. Venezuela - 94
10. Dominican Republic - 90
11. Cuba - 84
12. Canada & Costa Rica - 74
14. Honduras - 18

Men’s (points)

1. Mexico - 472
2. USA - 352
3. Bolivia - 196
4. Canada - 192
5. Costa Rica - 186
6. Dominican Republic - 150
7. Argentina - 110
8. Colombia - 100
9. Ecuador - 92
10. Guatemala - 82
11. Chile & Venezuela - 64
13. Cuba - 56
14. Honduras - 40
15. Nicaragua - 10

Overall (points)

1. Mexico - 904
2. USA - 668
3. Bolivia - 324
4. Guatemala & Ecuador - 310
6. Canada - 266
7. Costa Rica - 260
8. Dominican Republic - 240
9. Argentina - 228
10. Colombia - 202
11. Chile - 186
12. Venezuela - 158
13. Cuba - 140
14. Honduras - 58
15. Nicaragua - 10

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