SUP Race day at the Pan American Surfing Games Panama 2023

Juliana González and Guillerme Batista win the Technical SUP Race at the 2023 PASG

Playa del Estero in Santa Catalina welcomed the excitement of the athletes of the Americas, searching for their qualifying spot to Santiago 2023

In this race of the Stand Up Paddle discipline, the athletes must travel a circuit with buoys and wave sections, which requires the highest athletic and technical level to maneuver on boards of 14 feet (4.2 meters) in length.

A large number of people came to witness how the rowers covered a total of three laps of the circuit in the form of a double V, with five turns on buoys, starting and starting on the beach.

The first race of the afternoon was the Men’s, which started off spectacularly with athletes from Brazil, Costa Rica and Argentina leading and setting the pace. In this initial exchange of paddles, Guilherme Batista of Brazil moved away from the group and stayed there until the end, winning the Gold Medal alone with a time of 44 minutes and 24 seconds.

The Silver Medalist, Itzel Delgado from Peru, who has already qualified for Santiago 2023 (via ISA Games), started in fifth position. Delgado was recovering places as the race progressed, reaching second place behind Batista, but his effort was not enough to catch up and he closed the race with a time of 46 minutes and 08 seconds.

In third and fourth place were the Argentines Franco Faccin (46.53 minutes) and Santino Basaldella (47.09 minutes).

The Women’s Race began with a compact group and with many difficulties for the athletes in the initial section with waves. Amid difficult offshore windy conditions, Juliana González from Argentina was the most consistent athlete, breaking away from the group and beating her closest pursuers by far.

The Argentine took the Gold with a final time of 49 minutes and 07 seconds, followed by Lina Augatis of Canada, 2014 ISA World Champion, with a time of 51 minutes and 25 seconds.

With this victory, González improves her second place in Venao beach last 2022, which she achieved after a fall just a few feet away from the finish line, from which Lena Ribeiro from Brazil passed her and took the Gold Medal. This year, Ribeiro could not finish the race after a strong blow to the head with her board, after falling in the wave section.

The Bronze went to Natalia de la Lama, also from Argentina and ALAS champion, with a time of 52 minutes and 22 seconds and in fourth position was Maricarmen Rivera from Puerto Rico, Central American and Caribbean champion, with 52 minutes 50 seconds.