Mexico Takes Men’s Pan Am Gold Medal As Galvez Closes Out Canada
from DailySquashReport.com
Salazar-Delierre
October 22, 2011 - With the men’s team championship match tied at one point apiece, Erik Galvez powered to a convincing straight-game victory over Canada’s Andrew Schnell yesterday in Guadalajara to capture the Pan Am Games gold medal for host Mexico, as hundreds of overflow spectators erupted with emotion.
In the opening match, number two’s Cesar Salazar and Shawn Delierre squared off in an attritional battle, won by Salazar 14-12 in the fourth in an hour and 16 minutes.
But veteran Shahier Razik put the Canadians on the board in the number one match, grinding down Arturo Salazar in an 11-3 close-out fourth game, forcing the deciding match.
PSA veteran Galvez, though, jumped on 19-year-old rising-star Schnell of Calgary from the outset and was never threatened, as he cruised to a 33 minute win.
The close-out win was a vindication of sorts for Galvez, who faced a similar situation in Germany in the World Team Championships in August. Playing the deciding match against Italy, with a coveted quarterfinal berth on the line, Galvez dug deep and battled back from two games down against Marcus Berrett and surged to a 5-1 fifth game lead. The Italian, though, was able to come back and win the match and Mexico, so close to an historic top-eight finish, wound up 16th.
Mexico concludes the Pan Am Games squash competition with seven total medals including four gold.
Canada finishes with six total medals and the US returns home with four: a silver in men’s doubles, a bronze in women’s doubles and bronzes in men’s and women’s team competition.
Men’s Results:
Gold Medal Match
Cesar Salazar d Shawn Delierre 9-11 11-6 11-6 14-12
Shahier Razik d Arturo Salazar 11-8 9-11 11-8 11-3
Eric Galvez d Andrew Schnell 11-5 11-1 11-3
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