Although they were not the best contributors of medals, women gave the highest grade in the 2023 Pan American Wrestling Championship, which took place at the National Center for High Performance Sports (CENARD) in Buenos Aires.

The women only contributed with the gold to Milaimys Marín in 76 kg, who was spectacular in the final against Colombian Tatiana Rentaría, in what was the most anticipated match in the women judo competition.

In the end, the champion of the 2018 Youth Olympic Games, and of the U-20 and U-23 world championship in 2019, surpassed the winner of the most recent U-23 World Cup on all aspects. Milaimys was in control of the match all the time and the final 7-0 was a clear reflection of her superiority.

However, in our opinion, the highest grade went to the young Ángela de la Caridad Álvarez (57), who defeated the Olympic champion of Rio de Janeiro 2016, bronze in Tokyo 2020 and three-time world titleholder, the American Helen Maroulis (57), in a fight where the Cuban woman came from behind and beat her spectacularly with a few seconds remaining before the end of the fight.

Ángela came out fast to get a back pass, but after two similar actions by the American apparently left the dispute decided, until almost at the end of the match the Cuban was just one point behind and with 11 seconds remaining, in a flash counterattack, she knocked down her opponent and score the 6-5, before receiving two more points when the claim from Maroulis' corner failed to progress.

The girls won three more bronzes, from Yusneilis Guzmán (50), Laura Herin (53) and Hangelen Llanes (68), all three defeated in the semifinals by the winners of their respective categories.

As expected, the Greco-Roman style led the way, with medals for Luis Orta (67), Oscar Pino (130) and Daniel Gregorich (87), and in the men's freestyle only Yuniesky Torreblanca (86) won the crown, who must be mentioned for the excellent shape he showed in the competition, except for the final bout (5-1), always won by technical superiority and was never down on teh score.

Alejandro Valdés (65) won a silver medal after fighting in the final match against North American John Diakomihalis, as did Arturo Silot in 97 against the star Kyle Snyder, and Reineris Salas (125) lost by not achieving even a place on the podium.

The gymnast lost to Venezuelan José Daniel Díaz, whom he had defeated several times before, but he paid dearly for his overconfidence in the second round, after winning 1-0 in the opening round. As soon as the decisive game began, the South American athlete scored four points and he could not even shorten the gap.

The great dominator of the tournament was the United States, which won 20 out of the 29 gold medals of the event, followed by Cuba, Canada, and Ecuador, in that order.

For Cuba the objective was attained of completing the teams for the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago de Chile, something that was also achieved for the World Cup in Belgrade, Serbia (September 16-24) in the Olympic divisions of the three styles, to guarantee the first opportunity to qualify for the Paris 2024 Games.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff