An unforgettable day for Colombian and Latin American cycling unfolded this Friday on the penultimate day of the Xalapa 2026 Junior Pan American Championships, taking place in Mexico, when Colombian cyclist Manuela Loaiza set a new world record for the kilometer time trial.
Antioquian sprinter Manuela Loaiza secured her third title of the competition in spectacular fashion. In addition to being crowned Pan American champion in the kilometer time trial, she set a new junior world record in the kilometer time trial, stopping the clock at 1:07.659 during the qualifying rounds.
This surpassed the previous record of 1:08.092 set by Great Britain’s Erin Boothman on July 18, 2015. With an average speed of 53.207 km/h, Loaiza exceeded the previous mark and dominated every intermediate checkpoint of the race (250 m, 500 m, and 750 m), delivering a historic performance from start to finish.
This performance earned her the title of best cyclist of the continental event. Behind her on the podium were Mexico’s Helena Rodríguez and Chile’s Yoelynne Barranza, taking silver and bronze, respectively.
And as if destined for a record-breaking day, Colombian sprinter Thomás Mejía wrote his own, setting a Pan American Junior record in the kilometer time trial with an impressive time of 1:01.610. With this mark, Mejía surpassed the historic 1:02.074 set by Cristian Ortega in 2018 during the Pan American Games in Cochabamba.
Behind Mejía, his teammate Juan José Calderón finished in second place, and Chilean Carlos Cid took bronze. In this way, Colombia swept all the sprint events and consolidated a high-level international performance that reaffirms the growth of this discipline in the nation.
Colombia’s third gold medal of the day came in the points race from Daniela Quintero, who beat her teammate Ana Sofía Suárez and Peruvian Valeria Sandiga, in that order. This brought Colombia’s total to nine gold medals in the competition, making them the virtual winners in the overall standings.
The other champions of the penultimate day of competition were Mexican. Cristian Garfias secured the third title of the day by winning the omnium, followed by Luciano Carrizo of Chile and Juan Esteban Sánchez of Colombia; meanwhile, Ximena Alejandra Valentín gave her nation its fifth title by dominating the elimination race, in which Peru and Colombia took silver and bronze, respectively.
With the day’s results, Colombia maintained its lead in the overall medal count after the fourth day of competition, with 22 medals in total: 9 gold, 5 silver, and 8 bronze, followed by Mexico (5-7-3) and Chile (4-2-4). Behind them are Peru (0-3-1), Brazil (0-1-0), and Ecuador (0-0-2).
The Junior Pan American Track Cycling Championships will conclude this Saturday at the Xalapa International Velodrome in Veracruz, Mexico.
