Peruvian Diego Elias grabbed gold in the men's singles squash final at the
Lima 2019 Pan American Games after beating Colombia's Miguel Angel Rodriguez 3-1.
The host nation thus won its third gold medal to add to the ones taken by
Gladys Tejeda and
Christhian Pacheco in women's and men's marathon events, respectively.
At the end of the game, Elias cried and hugged the coaching staff and his relatives as it was an unforgettable day for him.
"I'm still processing it. It feels so good. I'm really happy. I've been working really hard to achieve this. I'm really grateful to my whole team, specially my dad, who has supported me since the beginning," he said.
It was a tough clash against Rodriguez, and this was reflected in the results. They had to play four closely contested matches (11-6; 7-11; 12-10; 11-8).
At the first match, everything indicated that Elias was going to be the winner. However, things got complicated in the second game, when he lost 7-11.
The Peruvian knew how to react and proved to be an ice floe by winning the last heart-stopping games (12-10; 11-8).
In addition to claiming gold, the Peruvian could get his revenge against Rodriguez, who defeated him in the final of the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games.
"Now we have to play the doubles semifinal and try to win a new gold medal for Peru,” the gold medalist stated.
With Elias' victory, Peru has so far secured five medals (3 gold and 2 silver) at the Lima 2019 Pan American Games.
(END) MCP/ISG/RMB
Published: 7/27/2019