Honduras
In front of a full house at the National Gym of San Jose, Honduras prevailed in a five set thriller, with long rallies and an outstanding performance from both teams. This is Costa Rica’s third silver medal.
A very emotional Luis Membreño, with tears in his eyes said: “There are no words to express what I feel. We’ve been working for so long and after losing the Central American championship a month ago we weren’t going to give up so easy.”
For Richard Smith, captain of Costa Rica the feeling was of satisfaction. “I’m happy for my team, we proved that Costa Rica has talent. Our fans deserve the applause; sadly we didn’t win the gold.”
Honduras 3, Costa Rica 2
Luis Salgado recorded 40 points as Honduras captured the men’s gold medal following a thrilling five-set (25-20, 22-25, 25-21, 24-26, 15-12) victory over hosts Costa Rica. Carlos Osorio and Evans Torres contributed 17 and 11 points for the winners. Richard Smith topped the losers with 33 points and Jeffrey Calderon added 14. The Hondurans had a 7-2 margin in service winners while the Costa Ricans held a 16-13 advantage in the blocking category.
Panama 3, Guatemala 1
Domingo Avila and Donaldo Ureña each registered 22 points in leading Panama to a 3-1 (17-25, 25-21, 25-16, 25-23) victory over Guatemala and the bronze medal of the men’s tournament. The winners held a 5-0 margin in aces with Ureña recording three of them. Jeyson Nery and Moises Reyes had 14 points apiece for the defeated side.
“It was difficult to recover from yesterday’s loss and not being able to defend the title. It required a lot of effort to beat Guatemala,” said Eduardo Guerra of Panama.
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