2019 Pan American Games

Silver For The USA Men At Pan American Games

Silver For The USA Men At Pan American Games

The second day of the Pan American Games gymnastics competitions featured the men’s team final, and the USA took silver.

Jul 29, 2019 by Miranda Martin
Silver For The USA Men At Pan American Games

The second day of the Pan American Games gymnastics competitions featured the men’s team final, which also served as qualifications for the men’s all-around and event finals. 

Brazil won the men’s competition, combining a 40.850 on floor, 38.750 on pommel horse, 42.050 on rings, 43.350 on vault, 43.150 on parallel bars, and a 42.300 on high bar to total a team score of 250.450. 

The United States came in second in a close competition. During certain parts of the competition the U.S. was ahead of Brazil, but by the end, Brazil came out on top. The U.S. men outscored Brazil on floor with a 41.300 and on pommel horse with a 42.550, but scored lower than the South American squad on the other four events. The U.S. men got a 40.400 on rings, 43.150 on vault, 42.550 on parallel bars, and a 39.450 on high bar to get a team score of 249.400, just 1.05 below first place.

Canada took third with a 246.725 over Mexico’s 239.750. Fifth place went to Colombia with a 237.900, and then came Cuba, Venezuela, Argentina, and Peru, placing sixth through ninth, respectively. 

Unlike the women’s competition, the all-around qualifiers are all going to the all-around competition, as no country qualified more than two gymnasts to send. Robert Neff (United States) took first place with an 82.350. It was a close call for the top few places, as second place went to Arthur Mariano (Brazil) with an 82.200. René Cournoyer (Canada) took third all-around with an 81.900. Daniel Corral (Mexico), Caio Souza (Brazil), Cory Paterson (Canada), Isaac Nuñez (Mexico), and Carlos Calvo (Columbia) all qualified for the all-around competition as well, in that order. 

Competitors for event finals were also decided on Sunday. On floor Neff took first place with a 14.050, Corral took second with a 14.000, and Andres Martinez (Columbia) placed third with a 13.950. These three will go on to floor event finals, along with Tomás González (Chile), Mariano, Cameron Bock (United States), Arthur Zanetti (Brazil), and Daniel Agüero (Peru), who placed in that order. 

The eight men that qualified for pommel horse finals were Brody Malone (United States), Zachary Clay (Canada), Corral, Neff, Francisco Barretto (Brazil), Justin Karstadt (Canada), Calvo, and Jesus Moreto (Peru). Malone and Clay tied for first with a score of 14.500, and Corral took third with a 14.150. 

On rings Zanetti took first with a flat 15.000, Federico Molinari (Argentina) took second with a 14.500, and Fabian de Luna (Mexico) took third with a 14.350. Didier Lugo (Columbia), Cournoyer, Daniel Villafañe (Argentina), Rafael Rosendi (Cuba), and Souza also qualified for finals on rings. 

The vault finalists were Jorge Vega (Guatemala) with a 14.675 to take the title, Audrys Nin (Dominican Republic) with a 14.425 for second place, and Luis Porto (Brazil) in third with a 14.300. The other finalists were Jose Lopez (Puerto Rico), de Luna, Jose Toro (Columbia), Alejandro de la Cruz (Cuba), and Randy Lerú (Cuba). 

The top three places on parallel bars went to Souza (14.850), Nuñez (14.600), and Ariam Vergara (Cuba, 14.500). Bock, Mariano, Malone, Karstadt, and Calvo also qualified to parallel bars event finals. 

On the final event, Mariano (14.400) took first place on high bar, Barretto (14.050) took second, and Huber Godoy (Cuba, 13.600) took third place. Cournoyer, Samuel Zakutney, Calvo, Corral, and Martinez will also be competing in high bar event finals. 

One of the biggest surprises of the day was Malone falling on high bar. Normally Malone puts up a huge score for the U.S. on this event, but in this competition he fell on both his Yamawaki and layout Tkatchev. Both Brazil and the U.S. had some mistakes in their competitions today, but Brazil ended up on top.