The IV Panamerican Master Championships starts next Tuesday, Nov. 8th, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This time it will have, besides swimming (pool and open water), also diving, synchronized swimming and water polo competitions.
Total number of registered competitors up to 2500 of which 1656 in swimming (919 from Brazil, 178 from Argentina and also 47 from the USA).
This is the largest Panamerican event up to now, and one of the largest ever held in the Americas (with the exception of the FINA World Championships)
Next one, the V Panamerican competition is scheduled for 2013 in Sarasota, FL.
I am in the Dallas airport waiting to board my flight back to Philly. The Pan Ams were a great meet. They were well run and the facilities were pretty good. The Open Water 3K was also a unique experience. There were about 400 men. We started in maybe a 20 by 20 meter area on the beach and it seemed like we stayed that way for the first 600M of the race. There was a lot of contact, Latin Americans take OW seriously and no one would give an inch. After the race, they had an awards ceremony for the top 10 in each age group. After a week of competition we all pretty much knew each other and getting up on the medals stand was a great experience, everyone was cheering and I have never seen that much enthusiasm at any US Nationals. It was a something that I will never forget. Sarasota will host the Pan Ams in 2013. I think they can have an even bigger and better meet and BTW, Rio is unbelievable!
I am in the Dallas airport waiting to board my flight back to Philly. The Pan Ams were a great meet. They were well run and the facilities were pretty good. The Open Water 3K was also a unique experience. There were about 400 men. We started in maybe a 20 by 20 meter area on the beach and it seemed like we stayed that way for the first 600M of the race. There was a lot of contact, Latin Americans take OW seriously and no one would give an inch. After the race, they had an awards ceremony for the top 10 in each age group. After a week of competition we all pretty much knew each other and getting up on the medals stand was a great experience, everyone was cheering and I have never seen that much enthusiasm at any US Nationals. It was a something that I will never forget. Sarasota will host the Pan Ams in 2013. I think they can have an even bigger and better meet and BTW, Rio is unbelievable!
