Yuri Alvear Combat Arena taken in action in Cali

One of the greatest female ever in judo Yuri Alvear has got her own judo venue. At the occasion of the Pan American Judo Championships for Cadets and Juniors, the Colombian judoka saw her own venue with her own name. The Yuri Alvear Combat Arena, which can house 500 spectators, was recently built in Jamundí and its first use is due to be at the first-ever Junior Pan American Games.

Alvear, the judoka the venue is named after, won a Rio 2016 silver medal in the women's under-70-kilogram division and is a three-time world champion.

At London 2012, Alvear, who is from Jamundí, won a bronze medal, while she has also won two silver and two bronze medals at the senior Pan American Games. Jamundí is south of Cali but still in the Valle del Cauca department, of which Cali is the capital.

Alvear is a legendary judoka from Colombia, the best ever in her country and perhaps in South America. She is triple world champion in 2011, 2013 and 2014 and won bronze in 2015, 2017 and 2018. She won Olympic silver in 2016 in Rio and an Olympic bronze medal in 2012 in London and was 7th in Beijing. Yuri Alvear was Colombia's flagbearer at the Rio 2016 Olympic Opening Ceremony.  She won many Pan American Championships and took gold at the Grand Slam in Baku in 2017. Yuri won the Grand Slam in Brasilia in 2019, but retired last year and became a coach. That didn’t make sports betting via NonGamStopBets a piece of cake as the U70kg was very hard to predict in Tokyo, even without Yuri Alvear.

Cali 2021 will also be the first edition of the Junior Pan American Games. The event is due to take place from November 25 to December 5, with Panam Sports blaming a two-and-a-half-month delay on the COVID-19 pandemic.