Pan Am Games: US Men Eliminated By Canada Behind
Clutch Performance From Shawn Delierre
from DailySquashReport.com
October 21, 2011 - Montreal’s Shawn Delierre beat Christopher Gordon in five games last night to eliminate the US and propel Canada into the gold medal match at the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara.
Team Canada will face Mexico in the final today at 3:00pm PST.
The win was a measure of redemption for the Canadian team, which took a bitter loss to the US in the round-of-16 of the August World Championships in Germany, after both teams had successfully qualified out of the tough pools into the championship draw. The US ended up finishing 7th in the event while the Canadian team effectively fell apart after the loss and finished a disappointing 15th.
In that world’s match, Delierre and Gordon were set to face other in what would have been the decider, but the US clinched before they could get on the court.
In yesterday’s first individual match, #1 American Julian Illingworth took on Canada’s #1 Shahier Razik. Illingworth retired during the match, setting the stage for the Delierre-Gordon encounter. Gordon won an 11-6 fourth game to knot the match at two, but Delierre toughed out a tense 11-8 fifth game to bring it home for the jubilant Canadians.
Earlier, the US had beaten Argentina 2-0 to qualify into the semifinal round, while Canada had a bye into the semis based on pool results.
In the other men’s semifinal, it was host Mexico over Brazil 2-1. After Arturo Salazar fell to Brazil’s Raphael Alarcon, Cesar Salazar and Eric Galvez each came through with strong straight-game performances to put Mexico into the gold medal match.
Results:
Prelim:
US v Argentina
Illingworth d Miranda 3-2
Gordon d D’Arcangelo 3-0
Medal Round:
US v Canada
Shahier Razik d Julian Illingworth (Illingworth retired in-match)
Shawn Delierre d Chris Gordon 11-8 7-11 11-6 6-11 11-8 (54 minutes)
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