Canadians set 2 records, gold rush for US

LIMA, August 11

Canadians Marco Arop and Genevieve Lalonde shattered Pan Am Games records and the United States won four gold medals as the track and field competition at the 17-day sporting gathering neared a close on Saturday.

Sudan-born Arop charged home in one minute, 44.25 seconds to win the 800m ahead of Puerto Rico’s Wesley Vazquez (1:44.48) with both dropping under Cuban Yeimer Lopez’s 10-year-old record of 1:44.58.

“I’m on top of the world right now,” 20-year-old Arop said. Lalonde blitzed the women’s 3,000m steeplechase record by almost seven seconds, the bronze medallist at the 2015 Games stepping up to gold in 9:41:45. “I definitely had to work for it at the end, dropping all my energy into that last barrier and sprinting home,” Lalonde said. 

The United States’ Marisa Howard (9:43.78) and Argentina’s Belen Casetta (9:44.46) also were faster than the previous record of 9:48.12 that Ashley Higginson of the United States set in 2015.

Another record fell in the men’s javelin when Grenada’s Anderson Peters threw 87.31m to overwhelm the Jamaican 2012 Olympics champion Keshorn Walcott (83.55) and better Cuban Guillermo Martinez’s 2011 mark of 87.20. The United States’Gwen Berry (74.62m) and Brooke Andersen (71.07m) won the gold and silver in the women’s hammer throw before compatriot Omar Craddock won the men’s triple jump, bounding 17.42m to defeat Cuba’s Jordan Diaz (17.38m). — Reuters