Total triumph for Peru in Pan Am Games male and female marathons

Lima — Christian Pacheco won the men’s marathon in the Pan American Games at Lima to mark a sensational start for Peru, after compatriot Gladys Tejeda took gold in the women’s marathon that started an hour before, each setting a new record for this athletic event.

Such twin male-female victories had only ever been achieved by Brazil, the dominant country in Pan American Games marathons, which did so on two occasions: Santo Domingo in 2003 and Guadalajara in 2011. No Peruvian, man or woman, had ever struck gold running the marathon’s 42 kilometers and 195 meters (26.2 miles).

Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra celebrated this tremendous start for his country in the Pan Am Games by taking part in handing out the medals to the winners.

Christian Pacheco dominated the group of 18 long-distance runners from start to finish with an apparently suicidal strategy, for which he had the collaboration of his colleague Willy Canchanya.

His official time in hours, minutes and seconds was 2:10:41, fast enough to break the record for the Pan Am male marathon set by Puerto Rico’s Jorge Peco Gonzalez in 1983 with 2:12:43.

The silver and bronze medalists were the Mexicans Jose Luis Santana with 2:10:41, his best ever, and Juan Joel Pacheco with 2:12:10. The last winner of the male marathon before Christian Pacheco was the Cuban Richer Perez.

Kennedy Park in the Miraflores district saw both the start of the race and the runners crossing the finish line in a contest that came ahead of the athletics program of the Pan American Games, which will start up again with the parade on Aug. 4 and the athletic events in the stadium beginning Aug. 6.

The morning was cool, around 15 C (59 F), with cloudy skies. Some six runners in each of the marathons broke their own personal records.

Gladys Tejeda won with a time of 2:30:55 and at last turned the page from the 2015 marathon in Toronto, which she won in a record 2:33:03 - only to lose her gold medal and have her record time scratched for doping with a diuretic.

On Saturday, Tejeda was among those leading in the marathon until the halfway point, where she began to pull ahead, chased by the Brazilian Valdilene Dos Santos and the American Bethanty Sachtleben.

From then on she never lost the lead and crossed the finish line well ahead of Sachtleben (2:31:20) and the Colombian Angie Orjuela (2:32:27), who in the final third of the race made a superb comeback from fifth position to win the bronze.

Until this Saturday, two Mexicans, two Brazilians, one Chilean, one American and one Cuban had won the gold medal in the women’s marathon since it first appeared in the Pan American Games in 1987.

The previous winner, who was awarded the gold medal withdrawn from Tejeda, was the Brazilian Adriana da Silva, who set the Pan American Games record of 2:35:40, a record the Peruvian pulverized this Saturday.

Tejeda had previously won a bronze medal in the Pan Am Games of 2011. EFE-EPA nam/cd