Peruvian Volleyball once again faces a great international challenge with the participation of the women’s team in the Challenger Cup, a qualifying tournament for the most important event organized by the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB): the “2020 Nations League”. The team lead by “Paco” Hervás starts the final stretch of their preparation for Lima 2019.

Peru’s debut in Group A will be against Croatia tomorrow at 20:00, at the Manuel Bonilla Coliseum in Miraflores, while the second match will be against Czech Republic on Friday, at the same time. The first two teams in this Group will pass to the semifinals and will compete against the teams qualified in Group B, formed by Argentina, Canada and Chinese Taipei.

Unlike women’s European teams, who are at a good pace after participating in the Golden League a few days ago, the Peruvian team finished an intense training phase at the Callao Sports Center. Hervás has only trained with the whole team for the past two weeks. However, he will try to level up his team with the technical strengths they applied during the training sessions.

“We will face teams that mark a physical difference in attacking and blocking, but we have the resources to counter those strengths. We don’t often compete against teams at the level of the countries participating in this tournament, so this will give us an idea on what to improve for the Pan American Games,” said the coach.

Hitter Ángela Leyva assured that they will give their best performance. “Our plus is that we’ve known each other for a long time, and even if we face renowned opponents, we will counter them with our strengths. This tournament will serve to boost the team’s performance in every way,” she said.

VOLLEYBALL IN LIMA 2019

The volleyball matches at the Pan American Games will be governed by the rules of the International Volleyball Federation. The men’s competition will begin on July 31 and end on August 4, while the women’s competition will be held between August 7 and 11. The venue for the volleyball competitions will be the Callao Sports Center, with a capacity of 6100 spectators.

Women’s national volleyball team is in pool A along with Canada, Dominican Republic, and Colombia. Meanwhile, USA, Brazil, Puerto Rico and Argentina are in pool B. Men’s national team will play against Argentina, Cuba, and Puerto Rico in pool A, while Brazil, Mexico, Chile and USA will be in pool B.

The competition format includes a round-robin preliminary round for the two four-team pools (A and B). The first two teams of each group will qualify to the semifinals. The two winners of the semifinal will qualify to the final match for the gold medal. The third-place teams of each group will compete for the fifth and sixth place in the qualifying round.

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The best players of the Badminton World Federation met this weekend at the Peru International 2019 tournament, leaving a positive balance as to the technical level expected for the Pan American Games. Tickets for the final to be held on August 2 are almost sold out.

Sports Center 3 in VIDENA will host the best matches between Canada, Guatemala, United States, Brazil and Peru, which will compete with a team of eight members including the female duo formed by Dánica Nishimura and Daniela Macías, bronze medal winners in the tournament that ended this Sunday.

Guatemala was the top winner with two gold and one silver medals. Although its leading figure, Kevin Cordon, could not defend his two-time Pan American champion title, and was defeated by the Canadian Brian Yang (15-21, 21-13 and 21-12). The final was an extraordinary match of technical resources, with a wide range of hits from the back and to the net.

For Cordon, gold medalist at Guadalajara 2011 and Toronto 2015, it is just a warning of what he will experience against his main challengers: Canadian Jason Ho Shue and Brazilian Ygor Coelho. Both climbed in an unstoppable way in the world ranking and come to Lima to defeat the Guatemalan athlete. To watch these matches, you can buy your tickets at www.lima2019.pe/tickets.

In the Pan American Games, badminton is scheduled to take place from July 29 to August 2 at the Sports Center 3 in VIDENA. It will take place in singles, doubles (women's and men's), as well as mixed doubles. Each match will have three sets; the winner will be the first one to obtain 21 points.

OTHER WINNERS ALSO CELEBRATED

Guatemala reached the podium with Rubén Castellanos and Aníbal Marroquín; as well as the women’s pair formed by Diana Corleto and Nikte Sotomayor. Likewise, in women’s, the Indonesian Ghaida Nurul defeated the best badminton players of the Americas, winning against the Cuban Taymara Oropesa.

In mixed doubles, the US athletes Howard Shu and Paula Lynn Obanana defeated the Brazilians Fabricio Farías and Jaqueline Lima. In the end, Brazil obtained three silver and four bronze medals.

Students from the Institución Educativa 7216 Villa de Jesús located in Villa El Salvador participated in the “Soy Lima 2019” campaign with Lima-related slogans and dressed in red and white.

Primary school students started their previously prepared workout routine as part of the 10 minutes of physical activity promoted by the Ministry of Education. Milco, the official mascot of the Games, also attended the activity in which all students participated.

Afterwards, two primary school students performed a Gymnastics exhibition, one of the sports to be held in Villa El Salvador.

Later, a sociocultural activity supporting Olympic and Paralympic values was presented to promote sports.

“It’s important that school-age kids discover values through sports because they should be practiced in daily life,” stated María Escate, schoolteacher.

She also said that “you need to pay attention and concentrate in order to practice any sport and that also improves learning.”

Diego Palacios, Physical Education teacher, said that football, futsal and handball are also practiced at the school. He also mentioned that the Pan American and Parapan American Games will leave an infrastructure legacy but will also help promote sports. “We will be able to watch competitions and talents from other countries thanks to the Games. That will allow us to know more about other sports,” he said.  

It should be noted that karate events will be held at the Villa El Salvador Sports Center; kata will take place on August 9, and kumite on August 10 and 11. Gymnastics events will start with artistic gymnastics from July 27 to 31. Followed by rhythmic gymnastics from August 2 to 5 and trampoline events, which will take place from August 4 to 5.

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Everything is almost ready to welcome, in a few days, the best athletes of the Americas to the largest multi-sports event in the continent, to be held for the first time in Peru. On July, we will become the sports capital of the Americas and we will be on the spotlight during the Lima 2019 Pan American and Parapan American Games.

We are only 30 days away from the start of sports competitions that will mark a major milestone for our country due to the relevance of this event as it is considered second in importance in the world after the Olympic Games.

On July 24, two days prior to the Pan American Games Opening Ceremony at the National Stadium, the official competitions will begin. The first one will be beach volleyball, which will be held in a new conditioned facility in Costa Verde, in the district of San Miguel.

There, the first women's competition will take place at 9:00 between Canada and Nicaragua and it will officially set off the Pan American Games in Peru. At the same time, Argentina will play against Guatemala in court 2. Immediately after, United States will face Trinidad and Tobago, and Colombia will compete against Costa Rica also in women's.

As for the men's competitions, they will start at 10:40 with Canada vs. Nicaragua and Chile vs, Mexico. Then, Brazil will play against Costa Rica and Cuba will face Uruguay.

After midday, competitions will resume with women's at 12:20 between Brazil and Virgin Islands, and Mexico vs. Chile. The Peruvian team will make its debut against El Salvador at 13:10. Cuba and Paraguay will play at the same time.

Then, it will be the turn of the men's category at 14:00 between United States and El Salvador, and Argentina vs. Trinidad and Tobago. At 14:50, the Peruvian men's team will face Dominican Republic and Guatemala will face Venezuela, which will bring the day to a close. These events will bring the beach volleyball opening day to a close.

AT VIDENA

Women's handball competitions will also start on July 24 and they will be held at VIDENA Sports Center 1, which has been conditioned and was built in advance for the Lima 2019 Games.

There, the opening day will start at 13:00 with the preliminary round. The first competition will be between Puerto Rico and Canada. The Peruvian team will make its debut against Dominican Republic at 15:30.

The competition will continue at 18:00 with the match between Argentina and United States. The match between Brazil and Cuba at 20:30 will bring the day to a close.

LIMA 2019 TICKET SALES

Tickets for Pan American Games preliminary events are already on sale and they start at PEN 20.00. There will be a 50% discount for children under 18, senior citizens and people with an impairment.

Tickets can only be bought in ten Lima 2019-authorized points of sale around the city. Learn more about their location:

Tickets can also be purchased online through the official website www.lima2019.pe, where you can find the sports calendar along with the detailed competition schedule.

In the case of e-tickets, printing will no longer be necessary since customers can show their e-ticket from their mobile phones at the entrance of the sports venue.

QUALIFICATION FOR TOKYO 2020

The Lima 2019 Pan American Games will include 39 sports and 61 disciplines, in which athletes will compete for gold, silver and bronze medals. There will be more sports than in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, where a total of 32 sports will be featured. Out of all the Lima 2019 competitions, 22 are the qualifiers for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

The competitions offering qualification for Tokyo 2020 are: athletics, badminton, handball, swimming, artistic swimming, diving, equestrian sports (jumping, dressage and eventing), hockey, karate (kata and kumite), pentathlon, weightlifting, surf, tennis, table tennis, shooting, archery, triathlon, sailing and water polo.

Lima 2019 will be a qualifying event for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, which guarantees the presence of the top athletes in these sport disciplines.