Brazil takes gold in rowing and breaks 36-year fast in Pan American Games – 10/25/2023 – Sport

Lucas Verthein, 25, from Rio de Janeiro, won this Wednesday (25) the gold medal in rowing at the Pan-American Games being held in Santiago, Chile. The achievement represented the breaking of a fast that had already lasted 36 years.

Competing in the simple sculls, with just one rower per boat, Verthein covered the two kilometers of the race in a time of 6min58s76.

In the last meters of the race, the Brazilian overtook United States athlete James Plihal, who finished with silver, with a time of 6min59s93. Bronze went to Juan Rodriguez, from Mexico, who completed the race in 7min01s27.

The last time Brazil won a gold medal in rowing at the Pan American Games was in 1987, in Indianapolis, USA. On that occasion, the brothers Ricardo and Ronaldo de Carvalho occupied the highest place on the podium in the “two without” modality, in which each boat has a pair of rowers, with one oar each.

Verthein had already won a bronze at the Pan-American Games in Lima, in 2019, alongside Uncas Batista, in the “double sculls” (two rowers with two oars each). The victory this Wednesday marked Brazil’s first gold in the competition in individual events.

The country’s leading name in the sport, Verthein also competed at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021. He reached the semi-finals and finished the competition in 12th place, equaling Brazil’s best result at the Olympics. At the 1980 Games in Moscow, Paulo Cesar Dvorakowski achieved the same position.

The country also won silver in Santiago in women’s rowing, with Beatriz Cardoso, 28, from Rio. Also competing in the single sculls, Beatriz finished the race with a time of 7min46s73. Kenia Lechuga, from Mexico, took gold (7min44s63), and Nicole Martinez Gonzalez, from Paraguay, completed the podium with bronze (7min47s29).