Venezuelan wrestling won five medals in the U-17 Pan American Championship
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Published at: 05/04/2026 01:37 PM
A gold medal, two silver medals and an equal number of bronze medals for a total of five medals was the harvest that Venezuela won in the recently completed Pan-American Under-17 Wrestling Championship held from April 2 to 4 at the Irving Saladino Sports City in Panama.
Haniel Rodríguez, one of the candidates to be the flag bearer of our country in the next South American Youth Games in Panama, won the 55 kg in Greco-Roman the only gold medal in which he reached the decisive fight, after winning his three previous fights due to overwhelming dominance on the mat.
Golden rematch
In the first challenge, he beat the Chilean Dante Barras 9-0 for technical superiority in just two minutes, a little later he beat the Honduran Dannys González 7-0 and in the semifinal he defeated the American Jeremy Aiden 6-1.
The battle for gold was a rematch for Rodríguez; he took revenge for the 9-0 defeat suffered in the quarterfinals at the U17 Pan American Championship in Rio de Janeiro 2025 against Brazil's Lavozier Wadik, who sent the Venezuelan to the repechage round where he finally won the bronze medal.
This time, the Venezuelan dominated the Amazonian Wadik, runner-up in 2025, in a fight in which he started with a score of 1-5 against in the first round, but in the second period he equaled 5-5, to take the victory and the gold medal for scoring the last points of the match.
For Rodríguez it was his second gold medal in the regional fight, because in the first Bolivarian Youth Games in Sucre, Bolivia 2024, he also rose to the top of the podium in the Greco-Roman fight.
Silver and bronze
Wilfredo Rodríguez won the silver medals in freestyle (60 kg) after giving up 12-1 in the final against American Cooper Mathews, and Asia Sanchez (49 kg) who fell 10-0 to fellow North American Hailey Kobe.
The bronzes were won by Osnel Tovar (45 kg) in freestyle and Fabián Córdova in the 71 kg of El Greco.
Venezuela finished fifth in the medal table with one gold, two silver and two bronze, led by the United States (23-4-3), followed by Mexico (3-6-8) and Puerto Rico (2-1-10).
The next challenge for the international fight for the new generation of Venezuelan wrestling is the South American Games in Panama, where he will defend the title won in Rosario, Argentina 2024, with eight gold metals.
MPPRD