Thursday, November 2nd, 2023.- Panama had a historic day on Thursday at Santiago 2023, winning its first gold medal in these Pan American Games thanks to the excellent performance of Donald Lee and William Duen in bowling.

The Panamanian duo was the best in the male's doubles, scoring 3,511 points, surpassing the 3,435 points achieved by the Canadian pair of Michel Hupé and Francois Lavoie, who had to settle for the silver medal. The podium was completed by the Costa Rican team of Marco Moretti and Juan Rodríguez, with a total of 3,430 points.

This gold medal for Panama at Santiago 2023 was a significant achievement for the Central American country, marking their fourth gold medal in the 19 editions of the Pan American Games.

William Duen, excited by the victory, stated, "It was a tough day, where we started strong and then had a bit of a slump. We managed to recover in the end and finished really strong, with a 500 that nobody expected, especially from Panama. You need to have a strong mental game in this sport."

Francois Lavoie was also delighted with the silver medal, saying, "It was a very exciting competition that went down to the wire. Panama did a great job to secure the gold medal, so we had to battle it out with Costa Rica. We had some games where we could perform better, and others where we struggled a bit, but I think we did very well as a team throughout the day."

Marco Moretti from Costa Rica added, "I dare say we were consistent because we didn't have very outstanding scores, nor did we have significant drops. The key is to stay calm and make good executions. We had an aggressive finish, and we are happy to have secured the bronze medal."

Written by Patricio Echagüe and Arturo Hernández; translated by Andrés Castro / Santiago 2023 vía Photosport
Photo by Alejandro Pizarro / Santiago 2023 vía Photosport