Bronze medalist at last year’s Tokyo Olympics, Mayra Aguiar did even better at the Pan American and Oceanian Judo Championships this Saturday, in Lima, Peru. He and two other athletes from Brazil picked up gold medals, taking the country beyond the 2021 campaign in the same competition.

In the two days of strife in the Peruvian capital, Brazil won a total of 15 medals, seven gold, five silver and three bronze. Last year, the national team won 14 podiums.

This Saturday’s final kicked off with Maria Portela taking the bronze medal by beating Estefania Garcia of Ecuador in the under 70kg category, with ippon. Soon after, Luana Carvalho won her first silver medal after losing to Elvismar Rodriguez of Venezuela. The Brazilian suffered three penalties and ended up taking the worst.

Saturday’s first gold came from Brazil’s clash between Guilherme Schmidt and Vinicius Panini, in the under 81kg category. Schmidt was more organised, showed composure in a balanced duel and won on penalties (3-1). “I overcome fight after fight with wisdom and a lot of strategy. I’m happy to come out with a win, I just have to thank you”, said Guilherme Schmidt.

Also winning gold was Olympic medalist Mayra Aguiar. He applied ippon to Karen Leon Venezuela to become a seven-time Pan-American champion. “I didn’t know there were seven, I didn’t count. That’s the relevant number. I have been doing this trip since I was 14 years old. I am very happy with this more gold. That is something that really motivates me. It’s great to be able to reach the top again. I left very excited”, commented judoka.

At the end of the night, Beatriz Souza, in the over 78kg category, knocked out Peru’s Yuliana Bolivar, to ippon, to win Brazil’s seventh gold in Lima. Rafael Silva, aka Baby, won the silver medal after losing to Cuban Andy Granda.

Also this Saturday, Marcelo Gomes and Rafael Buzacarini picked up silver medals after losing to Cuba’s Ivan Silva Morales and Canada’s Shady Elnaha, respectively.