Gold medals went to athletes from six countries at the finals of the PanAmerican muaythai championships in Mexico city during an exciting day of action.
Male and female athletes took centre stage for the day, and the crowds were also entertained by a demonstration of skill from over 200 children in the Mexican Sport Is Your Grang project. And in a beautiful example of how the IFMA muaythai family works together, various national coaches took time before the bouts to teach these kids some extra muaythai skills.
Highlights included a technical encounter between Peru’s Luna Tobin and American Erin Jiminez, both women bringing a raft of medals and titles to the ring. Gold to Luna after a tough bout.
In the men’s division Oscar Magallan (Mexico) faced Team USA’s Luis Morales, both of them coming from tough semi-finals but that didn’t impact on the standard with Oscar taking the gold.
In the 75kg division Byran Burgos (Honduras) faced Mario Raminez (Mexico) in a close final; Byran took the win in spite of loud suport for Mario from the crowd
The Peruvian team did well in other categories also. Lisanne Van Der Molen took gold against Columbia’s Sabina Mazo at 60kg. Peru also took gold in the men’s 54kg for Martin Mansilla, Gonzalo Abinagurta (63.5kg) and Mateo Celi at 86kgs, as well as three silver.
And Team USA were thrilled with their medal haul having qualified 11 athletes for the finals – busy day for the coaches. They took five golds, including three in the women’s division. Host team Mexico took home six golds, a great return on the huge investment of time and effort put in by the team since Mexico was selected as the host city.
Team Columbia took home two medals from their first PanAmerican tournament. And two golds went to Team Canada in male and female divisions. In the heavyweight male divisions, golds went to Argentina, America, Peru and Mexico.
Results finals PanAmerican muaythai championships
Also follow the Mexican Federation on Facebook for a look back at the week, and IFMA social media (IFMA Facebook IFMA Instagram IFMA Twitter) for more photographs and video.
