Marica Perisic and Vanessa Chala complete successful triple in Pan America

Brazil proved to be the strongest nation at the Pan American Open in Santiago de Chile this weekend. The Brazilians captured three gold medals. Four nations won two titles in Chile. Vanessa Chala of Ecuador and Marica Perisic of Serbia are the only two athletes who won all three Pan American Opens in Santiago, Cordoba and Lima.

France added two gold medals this weekend making four in Pan America in total this spring. Robin Corrado won U66kg and Cedric Olivar took gold U100kg. Also Japan won two gold medals for Seigo Nakajima U60kg and Yoshiki Ito U81kg. The Brazilians caught medals in almost each category but scored gold U73kg by Lincoln Neves. Peru celebrated the title for Yuta Galarreta U90kg, who also won in Cordoba last week. Vanessa Chala was successful each three times but heavyweight Freddy Figueroa took the gold medal on Sunday in Santiago.

Perisic and Chala take the triple

In the women’s division Chala defeated Sarah Mazouz in the final U78kg and the experienced heavyweight Nina Kutro-Kelly took gold +78kg.

Traditionally Edna Carrillo is very strong in this region and underlined her reputation with gold in Santiago U48kg, her seventh win in the Tour in Pan America since 2014. Larissa Pimenta added the second title for Brazil winning her division U52kg. Marica Perisic captured the only gold medal for a female European winning her class U57kg. She succeeded to take the triple in Pan America with three gold medals in a row. She’s got quite some opposition in her own country but the talented Serbian builds up confidence with such streak.

Prisca Awiti is in fact European too, born in Great Britain, but she represents Mexico since two years and she won the gold U63kg. Ellen Santana has an international reputation U70kg and she resisted the opposition in her class taking the gold.

The adventures in Pan America are over until the PanAm Championships in May. The World Tour continues next weekend in Tbilisi.