The United States continued its dominant performance at the 15th Pan American Games, winning seven more gold medals to extend its advantage on medal table here on Wednesday.
The Americans won three more golds from the swimming pool, took home the first equestrian title, split the two badminton crowns with Canada, added one shooting and one rowing golds to its haul.
The U.S. delegation now tops the medal table with 30 gold, 35 silver and 13 bronze medals. Cuba places a distant second with 13 gold, 5 silver and 9 bronze medals.
The weightlifting tournament came to an end on Wednesday, with Cuba and Colombia each taking five gold medals. Ecuador won two title, with Mexico, Dominican Republic and Chile each winning one.
Swimmers from host Brazil continued their strong performance at the 15th Pan American Games, winning three out of seven gold medals on offer on Wednesday.
Kaio Marcio Almeida led a one-two Brazilian finish in the men's 100m butterfly, winning the gold at 52.05 to break the previous Pan American Games record.
His compatriot Gabriel Mangabeira settled for the silver at 52.43 and albert Subirats of Venezuela took the bronze with 52.78.
The men's 100m freestyle title was also won by Brazil through Cesar Cielo Filho who was timed at 48.79 seconds. Jose Martin Meolans of Argentina edged Gabriel Woodward of the United States for the silver medal at 49.42.
Rebeca Gusmao is the first female swimming to win a swimming gold for Brazil at the 15th Pan Am Games. She outsprinted Ariene Semeco of Venezuela and Vanessa Garcia Vega of Puerto Rico in the 50m freestyle final.
Gusmao was happy about her victory: "I've always had difficulties to achieve things. By the end of last year it was even worse. I trained alone, stayed in the pool for hours and I even thought of giving up. But we always have people to motivate us and one of them has been my husband. He even offered to train with me every morning."
The United States also won three gold medals on Wednesday. Matt Patton led all the way to take the title of men's 400m freestyle, beating his teammate Tobias Work and Armando Negreiros of Brazil to the second and third places respectively.
Kathleen Hersey added one gold to the Americans' haul, winning the women's 100m butterfly at 59.21 seconds. The silver medal went to Sam Woodward, also from the United States, at 59.98, and the bronze was won by Gabriella Silva of Brazil at 1:00.50.
The American quartet of Jessica Rodriquez, Emily Kukors, Ava Ohlgren and Kaite Carroll eased to the victory of women's 4X200 freestyle relay. Their winning time of 8:02.03 beat the previous meet record of 8:05.28 but was well off the world record of 7:50.09 which was also set by Americans in Melbourne world championship last March.
"We don't see ourselves as the best. The United States are not participating with their main swimmers, so they can give a chance to the new athletes to be in the competitions," said Ava Ohlgren.
The Brazilian women's volleyball trounced their American rivals 3-0 in just one hour 15 minutes to book a berth in the final. Their final opponents will be the winner of the other semifinal match between Cuba and Peru.
In the baseball semifinals, Cuba beat Nicaragua 4-0 while the United States edged Mexico 2-1. The two will fight for the gold on Thursday.
Source: Xinhua
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