Convinced of its power and in pursuit of retaining the crown by countries achieved in Barranquilla 2028, the Mexican team achieved its third gold in track cycling at the Central American and Caribbean Games, on a day where Colombia claimed the other crown, in both the qualifications to the finals in the women’s keirin and the men’s sprint were held.
At the El Salvador National Velodrome, at Polideportivo El Polvorín, the Mexican pursuit quartet, made up of María Gaxiola, Yareli Acevedo, Victoria Velazco and Lizbeth Salazar, recorded a time of 4:49.026 and defeated their Colombian counterpart in the golden discussion (4: 51,281), composed of Lina Rojas, Elizabeth Castaño, Andrea Alzate and Serika Guluma. Venezuela was left with bronze, better than the Cuban team.
The first gold obtained by Colombia in track cycling, corresponded to the very strong team pursuit squad, made up of Nelson Soto, Juan Esteban Arango, Brayan Sánchez and Anderson Arboleda, who prevailed over Mexico (Tomás Aguirre, Sebastián Ruiz, Fernando Nava and Ignacio Prado The fight for third place on the podium had the same outcome as among the ladies: Venezuela beat Cuba.
As for the Kerin classifications for women, the Colombian Martha Bayona and the Mexicans Yuli Verdugo and Luz Daniel Gaxiola had no problems advancing to the final this Friday; while the Trinidadian Nicholas Paul walked in the qualifying, in the round of 16 and quarterfinals and is the wide favorite to prevail in the men’s sprint, scheduled to distribute medals this June 30.
With these outstanding performances, the Mexican delegation adds a total of four medals in track cycling (3-1-0), escorted by Colombia (1-3-0), Venezuela (0-0-2), and Cuba and Trinidad and Tobago (0-0-1).