(Luis Ruas/CBH)
Experienced rider Rodrigo Pessoa committed two penalties in the last performance of the second stint and Brazil ended up with the bronze medal in the show jumping team competition at the Pan American Games in Santiago-2023. The United States took the gold, while Canada took the silver.
This was the second consecutive podium for the Brazilian team in show jumping, after winning gold at the Pan de Lima-2019. In addition to Pessoa, Marlon Zanotelli, Pedro Veniss and Stephan Barcha competed for Brazil in the sport. Next Friday (3), Rodrigo, Pedro and Stephan will compete in the individual decision of the sport.
Good first pass
Pedro Veniss started Brazil’s campaign by finishing the course in a time of 75.96, but committing a penalty, which added four seconds to his final result. Subsequently, during Marlon Zanotelli’s presentation, the mare Deesse de Coquerie lost her footing at the start of the triple jump, which meant that the Brazilian rider had to restart his journey. Afterwards, the Maranhão native recorded two fouls and ended up with a time of 85.73, leaving him out of the individual final.
With the pressure of recovering the poor result for the Brazilian team, Stephan Barcha put on a beautiful performance, finished the course without any faults and kept Brazil at the top of the general classification. Finally, Rodrigo Pessoa was penalized in the final stretch of his presentation, in addition to finishing in 76s18.
Error at the end of the second pass
After the presentations of those who were not in the team competition, the fight for medals began to enter the scene this Wednesday (1). Pedro Veniss was once again the first Brazilian to compete. With another great performance, the São Paulo native finished with a time of 74.40.
Later, Marlon Zanotelli had the same problem as the first pass and ended up being eliminated from the race. In this way, Brazil lost its margin for error and needed to put on great performances to win the gold. Stephan Barcha did his part and finished without any faults, reaching the mark of 75s02. However, in the last performance, Rodrigo Pessoa committed two penalties and the Brazilian team went from first place to third, taking bronze.
Journalist from Espírito Santo graduated from PUC-SP and lover of Olympic and Paralympic sports.
