Gianna Woodruff goes for a medal at the Pan American Games

Runner Gianna Woodruff from Panama One of the Central American country’s bets is to fight for a medal in JSantiago 202 Pan American Games3, where he must repay the debt after failing to achieve his goal in Lima.

Born in Santa Monica, California (United States of America), It represents Panama by mother’s origin. The goal of Woodruff is to climb onto the podium, after taking a disappointing seventh place at the last games in Lima.

“My preparations are the best for these games,” the runner revealed to EFE from her training base in the United States.

At the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Woodruff finished seventh in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 57.20 seconds.

Woodruff She is currently ranked 13th in the world in the 400m, which makes her one of the favorites in the Panamanian delegation to fight for a medal.

She does not hide it and assures that she is ready to “fight for a medal” in Pan American Gamesdespite the fact that this competition is not part of the athlete’s annual menu.

“The pan american “They’re out of the regular athletics season, but I’m in good shape and I’m ready to do my best,” she said.

This year Woodruff He failed to add up wins in the various events in which he participated, and his best time in 2023 was 54.46 achieved at the Bislett Games in Oslo, the fifth stop of the tournament Diamond League.

Despite this, the athlete reaches Chili with the edge of the favorite, as of 2022 the holder of the South American record (53.69) and currently reports no physical discomfort ahead of the competition.

The athlete is aware that athletics is one of the sports in which Panama won gold Pan American Games. It happened at the Rio 2017 Games with Irving Saladin, who the following year, in Beijing 2018, won the country’s only gold in Olympic games.

Woodruff just competed in the World Athletics Championships held last month in Budapestwhere she had an acceptable performance, eventually being eliminated in the semi-finals.

Her performance there didn’t leave her “satisfied,” but she had a great overview of what she needs to improve on for these Pan American Games.

The Panamanian arrives at these Games with a secure ticket to Olympic games, so he can focus on that gold medal, which would be the Panamanian’s fourth in this type of competition.

with pan american on, Woodruff He does not lose sight of the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024, from which he wants to leave with a medal and thus surpass what he did in Tokyo 2020.

“In games Olympic “I will try to improve what I did in the past games: enter the final and try to get a medal,” he pointed out.

The athlete made his debut in the games Tokyo 2020, where he recorded a time of 55 seconds and 84 hundredths of a second in the Olympic final in the 400-meter hurdles, which secured him seventh place.

“Seventh place in Tokyo It was the best race of my life. “Even when I was running in college, I didn’t make it to the finals,” he said.