Mexico Delight Capacity Crowd on First Day of Parapans Swimming

If the first day is anything to go by at the Scotiabank Aquatics Centre, then the swimming competition at the 2011 Parapan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico could be something of a classic.

On Sunday (13 November) 11 medals were up for grabs and in front of an extremely passionate sell-out crowd the swimmers did not disappoint with hosts Mexico winning the most medals - two gold, four silver and one bronze - seven in total.

In the first final of the day, there was something of a surprise as Cuba's Lorenzo Perez (5:40.47) took gold by a whisker ahead of world number 10 Daniel Londono of Columbia (5:40.85). Brazil's Adriano de Lima (5:51.76), the Americas Record holder at the distance, and many people's favourite to win, claimed bronze

The crowd went wild in the second race of the day with chants of "Mexico, Mexico" as Vianney Trejo (6:03.28) set a personal best to secure gold for the host nation in the Women's 400m Freestyle S6. Her teammates Doramitzi Gonzalez (6:25.95) and Karina Domingo Bello (6:32.11) ensured a clean sweep of the medals for Mexico.

Venezuela's Alberto Vera Moran (1:15.39) had the pleasure of securing his country's first gold of the Games in the Men's 100m Breaststroke SB14. He led from start to finish to push the Canadian pair of Adam Rahier (1:17.77) and Maxime Rousselle (1:18.39) into silver and bronze respectively.

Mexico secured its second gold of the day in the Women's 100m Breaststroke SB14 when Mariana Diaz de La Vega (1:27.69) stormed to victory. The race for second place was a stunner with Venezuela's Viviana Moraes Barreto (1:30.79) holding off Canada's Kirstie Kasko (1:30.80) by just 0.01 seconds.

Daniel Giraldo Correa (2:26.95) claimed Columbia's first gold of the Games and set a new personal best in the Men's 200m Individual Medley SM12. He never looked in danger as he easily held off Argentina's Ignancio Gonzalez (2:34.11) into silver and Brazil's Renato Silva (2:42.47) into bronze.

The race of day in terms of sheer excitement was the Men's 400m Freestyle S7. Brazil's Ronaldo Santos led from the start, however buoyed on by a capacity crowd chanting and screaming his name, Mexico's Enrique Perez drew level with Santos going into the last 25m. His late spurt was not enough though and Santos (5:26.45) took gold by a breath from Perez (5:26.98) silver. Canada's Jean-Sebastien Lapointe (6:14.46) claimed bronze.

Soon after and Brazil claimed its second gold of the day in the Men's 100m Backstroke S8 through Caio Oliveira (1:14.52) who set a personal best. Silver went to Canada's Christopher Sergeant-Tsonos (1:17.48) and bronze Argentina's Lucas Poggi (1:19.77).

Argentina's Sergio Zayas personal best (1:17.85) prevented Brazil taking three consecutive gold medals by narrowly winning the Men's 100m Backstroke S11 ahead of Columbia's Juan Buitrago Blanco (1:17.93). Bronze went to Yunerki Ortega (1:22.91)

Buoyed on by the success of his teammate Marco Pulleiro (1:05.99) then went and won Argentina's second gold of the day in the Men's 100m Butterfly S9. Silver went to Mexico's Arturo Larraga (1:08.05) and bronze Brazil's Vanilton Filno (1:09.45).

A surging last 50m and personal best by Anna Johannes (1:15.80) saw her come from behind to tie for gold with teammate Amanda Everlove (1:15.80) in the Women's 100m Butterfly S9, USA's only medals in the pool on Sunday. Bronze went to Argentina's Daniela Gimenez (1:17.03).

The final race of the day saw Brazil (2:34.01) scoop its third gold of the day in the Men's 4x50m Freestyle Relay 20pts to put them top of the swimming medals table after day one. Mexico (2:46.19) claimed silver and Argentina bronze (3:19.56).

In total there are 85 medal events in seven days of swimming competition at the Parapan American Games involving 180 swimmers from 14 countries. Monday (14 November) will be the busiest day in the pool with 19 gold medals up for grabs.

This is the fourth edition of the Parapan American Games and has attracted 1,500 athletes from 24 countries who will compete in 13 different sports.

For the latest results from the Scotiabank Aquatics Centre please visit http://parapan.guadalajara2011.org.mx

To watch, live action from the 2011 Parapan American Games, please visit http://www.parapanamericanos.unotv.com.mx/parapanamericanos/index.html

For more information, contact: craig.spence@paralympic.org

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