Ramón Vila Mena gives RD its third medal at the 2025 Panam Junior

ASUNCIÓN, Paraguay. The Dominican Republic delegation closed the ninth day of the II Junior Pan American Games with a total of three medals, after the conquest of the bronze by the youth Ramón Vila Mena in the table tennis tournament.

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The medal arrived this Monday after a dramatic semifinal match in the singles modality, where Vila Mena fell 4-3 against the Brazilian Leonardo Ilzuka, in a match that was defined in the seventh set. With this result, Dominican table tennis achieves its first medal in the youth multi-sport event and maintains options to expand the haul in the team modality. On the same day, Dominican athletics burst onto the scene. Liranyi Alonzo qualified for the 100-meter dash final with a time of 11.08 seconds, a Junior Pan American Games record, while Yeral Núñez secured his spot in the 400-meter hurdles final by recording 49.75 seconds in the semifinals. Both will seek to reach the podium in the finals scheduled for this Wednesday. In water skiing and wakeboarding, the youth Andrea Pigozzi advanced to the finals of the slalom and jump modalities, after occupying the fifth and sixth places, respectively, in the qualifying rounds. His brother, Paolo Pigozzi, was on the verge of qualifying, finishing in seventh place. The Dominican Republic’s volleyball team did not have the same luck. The men’s indoor sextet suffered their second consecutive defeat, falling 3-0 to Cuba (25-23, 25-18, 25-23). In beach volleyball, both the men’s pair (Ramón de Jesús and Rolvin Maldonado) and the women’s pair (Yari Cleto Rosario and Crismil Paniagua) fell in their matches, against Brazil and Peru, respectively. In other disciplines, diver Piera Rufino Rivera managed to qualify for the final of the women’s 1-meter springboard with a score of 158.55, while her compatriot Aura Reyes was eliminated after finishing in 17th place. In speed skating, José Luis Santos finished in tenth position in the 200 meters against individual goal with 19.878 points. With Vila Mena’s bronze, the Dominican Republic reaches three medals in the general medal table and keeps alive its hopes of adding more metals in the competitions that continue this week in Asunción.