From Narváez to Albanese and Gull: “sons of” dominate at the Rosario 2022 South American Youth Games

Passion and talent for sport is usually passed from generation to generation in the same family and it is not difficult to find cases of athletes inheriting passion and excellence in both disciplines of their parents. On the list of light blue and white delegations to be shown between this Thursday and Sunday May 8 in the third edition of Rosario 2022 South American Youth Gamespostponed last year by the coronavirus pandemic, there are a few examples.

Of the 259 athletes who will compete in 26 disciplines, the surnames that are better known in our country are emerging. One of the first jumps you make is Junior Narvaezson of Omar, one of Argentina’s best boxers of recent times.

Ang Hurricane, born in Trelew 46 years ago, was World Boxing Organization Flyweight and Super Flyweight Champion between 2002 and 2014 and made 29 successful defenses to those crowns (16 in the first category, a record in Argentine boxing). In his career, he has earned a record 49 wins (25 by knockout), four losses, and two draws. As a novice, he won a gold medal in Winnipeg 1999 Pan American Games and added a bronze at the 1997 Budapest World Cup and a silver at Houston 1999, all at flyweight. In addition, he is an Olympian at Atlanta 1996 Y Sydney 2000.

Inactive since 2019, Omar is one of the trainers who will accompany Argentine boxers in Rosario, including Junior, who first entered the ring when he was very young, when he accompanied his father. At the age of 11 he started training more seriously and now, at the age of 17, he clearly wants to make a career in this sport.

In three fights as a rookie, he was part of the program for Youth Olympic Games Dakar 2022, which was finally postponed until 2026 due to the pandemic. And after that suspension, the appointment to Rosario was set as a new goal. But the goal is high. “My biggest goal and dream is to be an Olympic champion,” he said a few months ago.

Lucas Albanese He was one of the members of the rugby team 7 team, a great candidate to climb to the top of the podium in Rosario. The San Isidro Club player followed in his father’s footsteps Diego, an emblem of the national team, where he played 55 games and scored 10 trials. In his nearly 10 years as a member of Los Pumas (1995-2004), the Mar del Plata winger played three World Cups, South Africa 1995, Wales 1999 and Australia 2003. And he played five seasons with professional clubs in Europe. .

Lucas, Diego’s second child, was born in May 2004 and, like his older brother, Matthew, defended the colors of his father’s lifelong club, SIC.

At the age of 17, he has already played several national tournaments of seven and XV modality. Last month, for example, he was part of the Buenos Aires team that finished second in the M18 Argentine Championship after falling 6-3 in a tight final against Córdoba.

John Gull, one of the figures of the men’s beach handball team, also bears a popular surname. His father, Eric, was one of the best Argentine players in handball history. ThinSi, a former Quilmes winger, has had an outstanding international career in the world’s most competitive leagues. He played for clubs in Brazil, Spain – he won at 2010 Club World Cup including Ciudad Real-, Russia, Tunisia and Qatar. On the Argentina national team, he has been the Pan-American champion three times and played in five World Cups (1997, 1999, 2001, 2003 and 2009).

John, 17, plays as a defender at Quilmes and already has experience in light blue and white jerseys. A month ago, he became part of the squad that came out runner-up at South-Central Tournament who played at CeNARD and which the selected team qualified for World Cup in Greeceto be played in Crete from June 21 to 26.

The young Gull scored 8 goals and he was the best player of the national team in the final against Brazil, winning two sets (20-19 and 14-12) and capturing the subcontinental title. In Rosario, he will take revenge.

These three are not the only athletes in the Argentine delegation with a family tradition in their sports. Among the representatives of athletics, for example, is the pole vaulter Paula Gomez Iriondo, 16 years old and U16 national champion last year. His sister Luciana (18) was crowned the 2021 South American U20 champion in the same discipline and finished sixth at the World Cup in that category in Nairobi and at the Pan American Youth Games in Cali; and earlier this month he won the National Seniors title in Concepción del Uruguay.

Another case is that of Lautaro Destribat16, who will aspire for a medal in wrestling, the same sport his brother does Agustin (24), Olympian in Tokyo 2020, winner of bronze medal at the Belgrade World Cup 2020 and gold in the first edition of the Lima 2013 South American Youth Games.

Rosary 2022

About 2,500 athletes from 15 countries will gather in Rosario to celebrate the third edition of the South American Youth Games and compete for eleven days for some of the medals to be distributed in 26 disciplines that are part of the program: athletics, badminton, beach handball, 3×3 basketball, boxing, cycling, climbing, fencing, futsal, artistic gymnastics, hockey 5, judo, karate, weights, wrestling, swimming, roller figure skating, speed skating, rugby 7, skateboarding, taekwondo, tennis, table tennis tennis, archery, triathlon and beach volleyball.

For the first time, all the action of the event will go to one place, the Unique South American Parklocated in the Parque de la Independencia in that city, where, for example, the Hippodrome and the Newell stadium are located, two of the 17 sports venues where the competition will take place.

That’s also where they get up Main Awards Centerwhere all the medal ceremonies will take place, the sector for fan festwhere eSports will have a special corner reserved, and the gastronomic plaza.

The opening ceremony will be held on Thursday at 8pm in El Lago, which will also receive a closing on Sunday May 8 and the triathlon and cycling action. The tennis player Luciana Moyano and the basketball player Nicholas Chiaraviglio They will be the flag bearers at the inauguration.

Apart from Argentina, the other countries that will compete in the city of Santa Fe are Aruba, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Curacao, Ecuador, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela.

The light blue and white teams will try to improve their performances in the previous two editions. In Lima 2013, he finished fifth in the medal table, with 12 golds, 18 silvers and 32 bronzes. And in Santiago de Chile 2017, he climbed to third place with a yield of 37 gold, 29 silver and 35 bronze.

Brazil, which won the first two dates, leads the historical medal table of the Games, with 127 gold, 80 bronze and 73 silver medals, ahead of Colombia (71-53-57) and our country (49- 47- 67).