Tuesday morning the Team Event started with a 2-1 win over
El Salvador. Hours later, USA had a chance to guarantee
the first US team medal in Pan American history with a win
over Mexico.
Not 24 hrs earlier, Julian Illingworth lost 3-0 to Erick
Galvez (MEX) n the Gold Medal Match. They squared off yet
again to start the match off. On the same court Julian took
down Razik two days before, Julian had to show up and give
the USA a chance at beating Mexico. And show up Julian did.
He came out on all cylinders and took the first game in
10mins 9-3. Galvez flexed back to take the second 9-7 but
Julian responded with a gutsy 10-8 3rd game that seemed
to break Galvez down. The physical and mental strain caught
up to the gold medallist and Julian took the 4th 9-0 in
5 mins. 1-0 USA.
Christopher Gordon stepped onto the court with Jorge Baltazar
whom he had gone a tight 4 games with in the 2nd round of
the individuals. Gordon seemed to have figured out Baltazar
and took the first 9-7. But it was Baltazar that had things
figured out and took the next three games to knot the score
at 1-1.
Jaime Crombie and Marcos Mendez,
both veterans of many historic squash events, gave a great
show. Mendez took the match 3-0 to put out any hopes of
a USA upset.
USA is now into the Quarter Finals of the Medal Round and
will face host Brazil and have to deal with their very supportive
home crowd on Wednesday. A win gets them a guaranteed medal
and a showdown with Canada Wednesday night. A loss to Brazil
eliminates the USA from medal contention.
