Colombia are the new reigning Team Gold medalists for the XXII Central American and Caribbean Games following an unfortunate turn of events for Venezuela’s Pablo Barrios.
Eleven months after the 2014 XXII Central American and Caribbean Games were held in Veracruz, Mexico, the Central American and Caribbean Sports Organization have announced that Pablo Barrios of Venezuela is stripped of his gold medal after personally testing positive for a medication for his blood pressure.
“Pablo tested positive for a medicine he takes for his blood pressure,” explained Colombia’s Daniel Bluman, who expressed his disappointment for his friend Barrios. “For a competition of this level, we must declare all medicine we take personally as athletes. Pablo’s medicine is a combination of two substances and he was unaware of the second substance. It was the second substance of his blood pressure medication that he did not know to declare and that he tested positive for.”
“It is a really disappointing outcome,” said newly crowned Silver medalist Bluman. “It’s extremely unfortunate as it doesn’t affect Pablo’s or his horses performance. It just goes to show how cautious we have to be for competitions at this level.”
Colombia is now crowned the gold medal winners for the Team competition and Roberto Teran, who finished with a silver medal, will be awarded the gold medal for the Individual Final at the 2014 XXII Central American and Caribbean Games.
The official statement of the Central American and Caribbean Sports Organization was delivered by sports club president Hector Cardona to the Colombian Olympic Committee.
The document specified that in the Final individual jumping event, Pablo Barrios of Venezuela is now excluded, and therefore, Colombia’s Roberto Teran, who was second, will receive the gold medal. Similarly, Emanuel Andrade of Venezuela now finishes second with a silver medal, and Hector Florentino, of the Dominican Republic will be awarded bronze for third place.
In addition, the Team competition standings have also been affected. As Barrios’ score will be discounted from Venezuela’s overall score, Colombia will be awarded Gold, Venezuela will now finish with silver and Guatemala will be awarded bronze.
At the Central American and the Caribbean Games, medals are also awarded on the first day of individual competition, for the speed event. This event was also won by Barrios while silver was the awarded to Roberto Teran and bronze to Colombian teammate Daniel Bluman. Teran will receive Gold and Bluman will be awarded Silver. With this news, Colombia finishes the Central American & Caribbean Games with two gold medals, four silver medals and two bronze medals.
Source: www.coc.org