Photo Courtesy of Walter Howor

PANAMA CITY, PANAMA – After a strong opening day that saw the Canadian men’s U17 Pan-American (Pan-Am) Championships team take home six medals, it was the women’s turn to collect some hardware. The women took to the mats on April 3 in Panama City, Panama with 10 competitors all looking to find the podium. In the end, they came away with five medals (two silver and three bronze).

Midhurst, Ontario’s Lauren MacGregor, who trains out of K-Bay WC earned a silver medal at 53kg. MacGregor picked up wins over Ecuador, Mexico and Puerto Rico to earn her spot in the final against American Aubree Gutierrez. However, she fell just short of topping the podium, losing to Gutierrez.

Surrey, British Columbia’s Gurleen Dhillon earned a silver at 57kg. The Canadian Mal WC member scored wins over Argentina and Mexico to advance to the finals against Aleia Apostol of the USA. It would be Apostol who emerged victorious in the final and Dhillon settled for the silver.

In addition, Canada picked up three bronze medals. They were won by Calgary’s Maya Naicker at 43kg; Williams Lake, British Columbia’s Kai Pare at 61kg and Surrey’s Khushi Jhalli at 69kg.

The other women’s result included: New Westminster, British Columbia’s Jezry Chua fifth at 40kg; Winnipeg’s Talia Pavlic fifth at 46kg; Cold Lake, Alberta’s Riley Papalia fifth at 49kg; Amherstview, Ontario’s Annie Niemann fifth at 65kg; and Brampton, Ontario’s Asees Bains seventh at 73kg.

Overall, the Canadian women finished third in the team competition.

For complete tournament information and results, visit the tournament site at: https://uww.org/event/u17-pan-american-championships-1/results. Catch up on any matches from the event on UWW+.