Iwaasa wins Bronze in team event at Pan Am Games
Team Canada win Bronze in Men's and Women's Team Event Toronto (July 26, 2015) - Both the men's and women's Pan Am Games racquetball teams have won bronze medals for Canada in the Team Event at the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games.
The format has teams from each country face off against each other in the best of three matches; two singles matches and one doubles match. The team that wins two of the three matches advances. The draw is determined based on the results from the singles and doubles matches played in the individual events earlier in the tournament.
In the Men's Team Event, Mike Green of Hamilton and Coby Iwaasa of Lethbridge played the men's singles events for Canada and Vincent Gagnon of Montréal and Tim Landeryou of Saskatoon played doubles. Canada faced the Dominican Republic in the quarterfinals where it took all three matches to determine the outcome. Coby Iwaasa won his singles match against Luis Perez, 15 - 11, but the doubles team of Gagnon and Landeryou had a tough match, losing to Perez and Ramon De Leon 15 - 11, 3 - 15, 11 - 10. However, Green was able to finish it off for Canada in singles defeating De Leon 15 - 10, 15 - 6. The win guaranteed Canada a bronze medal in the Team Event and put them into the semifinal against the USA. The first match was doubles, where Gagnon and Landeryou faced Jansen Allen and José Rojas. Although the Canadian team had beaten Allen and Rojas in round robin doubles play in the individual events, the Americans came into the match with a strong strategy that worked well for them winning 15 - 4, 15 - 9. Green was next on the court next against Jake Bredenbeck in singles. Green's experience and power showed as he defeated Bredenbeck, 15 - 6, 15 -12. This left Coby Iwaasa to face Rocky Carson in the final and determining singles match. Carson, who won gold in men's singles in the individual event at the Pan Am Games, is also the second ranked International Racquetball Tour player and current World Champion. Carson had a decisive first game against Iwaasa winning 15 - 6. However Iwaasa did not give up easily and challenged Carson right to the end in the second game getting to game point first before Carson took back the serve and won 15 - 14. Carson was quoted in The Racquetball Blog, as saying "that was probably the best racquetball I've had anyone play against me all weekend. I was hitting good shots and he was hitting better shots at times."
Canada comes away from the Pan Am Games with three bronze medals in total; one in each of the Men's and Women's Team Event and a bronze for Vincent Gagnon and Tim Landeryou in Men's Doubles. This is one more medal than Canada won at the 2011 Guadalajara Pan Am Games. Head Coach Sue Swaine summed up the week saying, "It has been a long week and we have athletes who are really hurting. For the team to pull together to win these two bronze medals is a great way to end the Games and very exciting for Canada." "It is exciting for Team Canada to come away from the 2015 Toronto Pan Am Games with three medals," said Jack McBride, President of Racquetball Canada. "Our team had some challenges in the individual singles and doubles events which meant that some of our athletes did not meet their individual goals but Team Canada excelled as a whole. Congratulations to all our Pan Am Games Team, including the coaches and support staff, and especially to those athletes who made it to the podium for Canada.