The consecrated Christofer Jurado gave Panama its fourth gold medal in the 2023 Central American Road Cycling Championship, at the close of the competition, when he won the road, run on a 150-kilometer closed circuit on the Cinta Costera 3 , which was done in 20 laps.
In the same elite category, but among the ladies, also held this Sunday two hours before the men, the Costa Rican María Fernanda Sánchez prevailed, ahead of the Guatemalan Paula Guillén and the Costa Rican Milagros Mena, silver and bronze, respectively.
Jurado, along with another Panamanian Sandy Guerra, as well as Gabriel Rojas from Costa Rica and Albert Torres from Guatemala escaped from lap 37 of the competition. In the final sprint, the Monarch showed his strength in packing and with the help of Guerra, took the breed out of him and crossed the line first with a time of 3:38:58 to take the gold.
Tico Rojas had to settle for silver and Chapín Torres obtained bronze, while local Sandy Guerra came in fourth place, all with the same time.
The gold medal winner of the 2023 Central American Road Race showed his joy for winning the cycling regional, thanked Sandy Guerra for the work he did and added that he will now rest, to then prepare for the most difficult tournament, the Pan American Route 2023 (April 18 to 23), where Panama is also the venue and has to get its caste out.
The gold medalist admitted that the terrain on Cinta Costera 3 seems easy, but in reality it is not. It is the second time that Jurado has won the Central American Road Cycling Championship, the first time he did it in 2021 at the El Salvador event.
Panama in the last four years has won the regional road three times, let’s remember that in 2020 Alex Strah won it, Jurado did it for the first time in 2021 in El Salvador, in 2022 it was won by Rony Julajuj from Guatemala and now in 2023 Jury returns to the top of the podium.
“I am happy with today’s result, I felt quite good, but I knew that in the end it was going to be difficult due to the wind and the heat. We could always maintain the plan and the advantage without despairing”, declared the Panamanian after the test.
He added that now we have to rest and prepare for next week at the Pan American, where the competition will level up, because cyclists from all over America come,” said Jurado.
This was the fourth gold medal for the Panamanian representation in the competition and the second of Jury’s personal account, since he obtained the title of champion in the men’s individual time trial held on Friday the 14th.