Gianna Woodruff wins gold at Pan American Games

Gianna Woodruff became the first Panamanian female athlete in history to win a gold medal in the Pan American Games after a disqualification claim in the women’s 400-meter hurdles was successfully appealed.

The Panama Olympic Committee (COP) reported  Saturday, November 4,  that the gold medal obtained by Woodruff was confirmed.

The Panamanian had been disqualified, Friday, after it was announced that she had violated regulation 22.6.2, which consists of tearing down or moving any fence.

It was learned that the Costa Rican delegation was the one that filed the claim, as it was recording the evidence. According to the Ticos, it was then that they realized that Woodruff knocked down the fence with the sole of her foot.

However, Panama filed an appeal against the decision adopted which “was successful,” the committee highlighted.

With the decision, the victory of Woodruff is maintained, who stopped the stopwatch on Friday, November 3, at 56.44 seconds and surpassed the Brazilian Marlene Santos (57.18) and the Costa Rican Daniela Rojas (57.41), in the final of the 400 meters women’s hurdles.

The Isthmus woman had qualified for the final last Wednesday after placing third in heat 1 with a time of 58.68, at the Julio Martínez National Stadium. Woodruff had just won the silver medal at the San Salvador 2023 Central American and Caribbean Games.

This represents the seventh medal for the Panama delegation in Santiago 2023, after those achieved by Donald Lee and William Duen (gold/bowling), Atheyna Bylon (silver/boxing), Carolena Carstens (bronze/taekwondo), Eduardo Beckford (bronze /boxing), Lilian Cordones (bronze/judo) and Kristine Jiménez (bronze/judo).

In addition, it is the fifth gold medal in the history of the Isthmus delegation with those of Carlos Chávez (1955), Idelfonso Lee (1971), Irving Saladino (2007), and Donald Lee and William Duen (2023).