Brazil dominates
opening day at the South American Championships
Eduardo Biscayart for the IAAF
18 May 2001 – Manaus - Brazil, took full advantage of its role of host and dominated the first day of competition at the 41st Edition of the South American Championships, which are taking place in Manaus, the capital of the northern state of Amazonia.
The tropical weather didn’t bring any area records on Friday, but the competition has been very intense.
Local Maurren Higa Maggi, one of the attractions of the competition, won in the Long Jump with a good leap of 6.69, the best performance of the day.
Brazil grabbed the gold in 13 of the 15 finals held on the first day of the event at the “Vila Olímpica”, in front of a crowd of 4,000.
The non-Brazilian gold medals, went to Argentina’s Alejandra García, who won the Women’s Pole Vault with 4.00m. Junior Alina Alló, also from Argentina was 2nd with 3.90.
In the Women’s 20,000m Walk, the South American record holder, Geovanna Irusta repeated her victory from Mar del Plata ’97, and struck the gold with 1:42:42.4.
We had 2 very good races in the 800 metres. On the women’s side, Brazil’s Luciana Mendes took the victory away from veteran Letitia Vriesde from Surinam. Mendes’ time, 2:00.04 was the only Championship record beaten today. Vriesde, who lead at the 400m mark, was 2nd in 2:00.93.
On the men’s race, local Hudson de Souza was victorious in 1:47.20. Second place also went to Brazil, with Flávio Godoy’s 1:47.65, with Venezuelan junior Simoncito Silvera coming third (1:48.54).
The competition will finish on Sunday.
Results
Men
100m (0.2): Raphael de Oliveira BRA 10.36, Cláudio Sousa BRA 10.37, 3 Heber Viera URU
10.38
800m: 1 Hudson de Souza BRA 1:47.20, 2 Flávio Godoy BRA 1:47.65, 3 Simoncito Silvera 1:48.54
5000m: 1 Elenilson da Silva BRA 14:10.94, 2 José Frazão BRA 14:25.35, 3 Alejandro Semprún VEN 14:32.90
400mh: 1 Anderson Costa dos Santos BRA 50.48, 2 Carlos Zbinden CHI 50.99, 3 João Carlos dos Santos 51.04
HJ: 1 Jessé de Lima BRA 2.20, 2 Alfredo Deza PER 2.20, 3 Felipe Apablaza CHI 2.15
JT: Luiz Fernando da Silva BRA 74.50, 2 Nery Kennedy PAR 74.41, 3 Manuel Fuenmayor VEN 71.44
Decathlon (5 events): 1 Édson Bindilatti BRA 4064, 2 Eric Kerwitz ARG 3901, 3 Enrique Aguirre ARG 3839
Women
100m
(0.6): 1 Lucimar de Moura BRA 11.55, 2 María Isabel Coloma CHI 11.79, 3 Rosemar Neto BRA
11.79
800m: 1 Luciana Mendes BRA 2:00.04, 2 Letitia Vriesde SUR 2:00.93, 3 Marlene da Silva BRA 2:05.82
5000m: 1 Maria Cristina Rodrigues BRA 16:35.1, 2 Selma dos Reis BRA 16:40.0, 3 María Paredes ECU 16:53.5
400mh: 1 Isabel Rocha Silva BRA 57.47, 2 Princesa Oliveros COL 58.76, 3 Luciana França BRA 58.87
PV: 1 Alejandra García ARG 4.00, 2 Alina Alló ARG 3.90, 3= María Paz Ausin CHI 3.70 & 3= Karem da Silva BRA 3.70
LJ: 1 Maurren Maggi BRA 6.69 (0.0), 2 Luciana dos Santos BRA 6.10 (0.0), 3 Helena Guerrero COL 6.04 (0.0)
SP: 1 Elisângela Adriano BRA 17.93, 2 Andréa Pereira BRA 15.64, 3 Marianne Berndt CHI 15.21
JT: 1 Carla Bispo BRA 51.98, 2 Alessandra Resende BRA 50.83, 3 Romina Maggi ARG 48.90
20,000m Walk: 1 Geovanna Irusta BOL 1:42:42.4, 2 Gianetti Bonfim BRA 1:46:02.1, 3 Cristina Bohorquez VEN 1:48:18.8
