The Dominican Republic has sent 242 athletes to Santiago, Chile, to participate in the 2023 Pan American Games, just one step removed from the 2024 Paris Olympics.
At the 19th Pan Am Games’ start, the DR has received one gold medal, a silver and a bronze. Dahiana Ortiz gave the Dominican Republic its first gold medal of the Games in the women’s 49kg weightlifting category. In her two lifts, she totaled 190 kg, one more than her rival at 189. Beatrice Piron lifted 181 kg in the same category and took the bronze medal. In Taekwondo, Dominican star Bernardo Pie took the silver medal in his category of 66kg. He fell to the US’s Khalfani Harris 6-4 and 10-9.
On the other hand, the Caribbean Queens, as the national volleyball team is named, easily handled the female volleyball team from the host-country Chile 3-0 in their first game. The partials were 25-18, 25-17 and 25-11. Stalwarts Yoncaira Peña and Braylin Martinez provide a major part of the scoring with 13 points each and Gaila Gonzalez added another 11. The Queens were dominant at the net, going 10-2 on blocks. The senior women’s team also nixed Mexico 3-0. The DR now goes against Colombia.
As the news trickles in, the results have been mixed for the DR. The national baseball team was quickly eliminated after just two games, losing 4-1 to Panama and 1-0 to Mexico. Upon returning to the country, the team’s general manager said that they needed more help from the Dominican Professional Baseball League (Lidom) since none of the Dominican Winter League teams allowed any of their rosters to take part in the games. Mexico, on the other hand, had a roster full of players from the Mexican Winter League.
Coinciding with the first medals, the Dominican government announced gold medallists would receive a cash award of RD$350,000. The team members of team sports winning gold medals would each get RD$250,000.
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23 October 2023