{"id":679,"date":"2019-07-31T16:02:06","date_gmt":"2019-07-31T16:02:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/?p=679"},"modified":"2019-07-31T16:02:08","modified_gmt":"2019-07-31T16:02:08","slug":"2019-pan-am-games-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/2019\/07\/31\/2019-pan-am-games-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"2019 Pan Am Games Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Pan Am Games 2019 in Lima, Peru<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Welcome to perhaps the grandest international event in our sport; the quadriennial Pan American Games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is as close as our sport gets to the Olympic games right now. And they’re starting up this weekend, held in Lima,Peru.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This will be the 6th time Racquetball has participated in these games: they debuted in 1995, then have been in every iteration since (with the exception of 2007, when host country Brazil dropped the sport).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s some lists of past Men’s and Women’s singles winners:
– Pan Am Games Men’s singles champions: http:\/\/rball.pro\/C5106C<\/a>
– Pan Am Games Women’s singles champions: http:\/\/rball.pro\/0A12EC<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first Pan Am games Men’s singles champion was John Ellis<\/strong> in his final amateur match; he avenged a loss in the previous year’s Tournament of the Americas event to long time US international player Michael Bronfeld<\/strong>. The first Pan Am games Women’s champion was the legendary\u00a0Michelle Gould<\/strong><\/a>who won a slew of international events along with nearly every Pro match she played in the 1990s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Women’s singles competition this year will feature two-time defending champ\u00a0Paola Longoria<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0who won in 2011 and 2015. She’ll be challenged by her country-woman\u00a0Montse Mejia<\/strong><\/a>, who beat her earlier this year in the Mexican Nationals. She’ll also have to fend with top LPRT pros and international veterans like\u00a0Maria Jose Vargas<\/strong><\/a>,\u00a0<\/strong>Frederique Lambert<\/strong><\/a>,\u00a0<\/strong>Rhonda Rajsich<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and the like. And, just to add some intrigue, Guatemala’s\u00a0Gaby Martinez<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0has come out of “retirement” to compete … the same Martinez who beat Longoria in the 2018 Worlds final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two-time defending Men’s single’s champ\u00a0Rocky Carson<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0will only be playing doubles this event, so we’ll have a new champ. The 2015 finalist\u00a0Alvaro Beltran<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0will be playing singles, and one of 2015’s semi-finalists\u00a0Luis Conrrado Moscoso Serrudo<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0may be the favorite in the event. But, don’t count out Moscoso’s Bolivian teammate\u00a0Carlos Keller Vargas<\/strong><\/a>, who is the 2-time defending PARC champ, nor the USA #1\u00a0Jake Bredenbeck<\/strong><\/a>, who destroyed the competition in May to earn his spot, nor Canada’s\u00a0Samuel Murray<\/strong><\/a>, who finished another solid IRT season and is a tough out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Round Robins start this weekend, and then we’ll preview the knockout draw once it is announced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Facebook news has been sparse on the event; unlike an IRF event, the host country more or less controls things and by all accounts it was difficult event to secure streaming rights on facebook. Which is a shame … since this should be the biggest event in our sport. Nonetheless, keep an eye out for enthusiasts posting live streaming links in the usual spots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

International Racquetball Federation – IRF<\/a>
Federaci\u00f3n Boliviana De Raquetbol – Febora<\/a>
Federaci\u00f3n Mexicana de Raquetbol<\/a>
USA Racquetball<\/a>
Racquetball Canada<\/a>
LPRT<\/a>
International Racquetball Tour<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to perhaps the grandest international event in our sport; the quadriennial Pan American Games. This is as close as our sport gets to the Olympic games right now. And they’re starting up this weekend, held in Lima,Peru. This will be the 6th time Racquetball has participated in these games: they debuted in 1995, then … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “2019 Pan Am Games Preview”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5,538,7],"tags":[46,171,111,95,75,35,422,67,539,497,64,60,69,15,59],"class_list":["post-679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doubles","category-irf","category-peru","category-singles","tag-alvaro-beltran","tag-ana-gabriela-martinez","tag-carlos-keller","tag-conrrado-moscoso","tag-frederique-lambert","tag-jake-bredenbeck","tag-john-ellis","tag-maria-jose-vargas","tag-michael-bronfeld","tag-michelle-gould","tag-monserrat-mejia","tag-paola-longoria","tag-rhonda-rajsich","tag-rocky-carson","tag-samuel-murray"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":682,"href":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679\/revisions\/682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}