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Pat Smith wins gold Wednesday at Pan Am Games

Patrick Smith won a gold medal Wednesday at the Pan-Am Games in Peru at 77kg (Photo by Juan Carlos Guzmán Negrini / Lima 2019)

Four of the five American wrestlers competing Wednesday in the Pan Am Games won medals in Greco-Roman competition in Lima, Peru.

U.S. Open champion Pat Smith of Minnesota won a gold medal at 77 kilograms (169 pounds) with three victories including a 3-2 victory over defending Pan Am champion Wuilexis Rivas Espinoza of Venezuela in the finals. Rivas took a 2-0 lead in the first period on an arm throw.

In the second period, Smith used an arm drag that led to takedown to take a 3-2 lead on criteria.

“It was the first time I ever got to carry the flag around the mat, so that was pretty sweet. I didn’t think it was going to be that cool,” Smith told Taylor Miller of USA Wrestling.com. “There were a couple of guys out there chanting ‘USA’, so there’s no better place to represent.”

At 97 kg (213), American G’Angelo Hancock of Colorado Springs went 2-1 dropping a 7-2 decision to Cuba’s Gabriel Rosillo in the final. Rosillo knocked down Hancock in the second period for four vital points. Hancock pressed but was on the wrong end of a video review call late in the bout that cost him a point when it was rejected.

American Ellis Coleman (67 kg, 147) won a bronze medal with a pin over Luis De Leon of the Dominican Republic. Ildar Hafizov of the United States (60 kg, 132) won a bronze with a 7-2 win over Mexico’s Emilio Perez Alonzo.

Connecticut Wrestling Online has been covering the sport of wrestling in Connecticut and New England since 2001.

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