Canada maintained their status as the best men’s team in the region by capturing their third straight Pan Am M&F Cup this morning.
In the final in Acapulco, Mexico, they went behind twice before coming back to defeat Brazil 3-2.
The Brazilians had a great start to proceedings thanks to world No.52 Ygor Coelho, who saw off the higher-ranked Brian Yang 15-21 21-10 21-14 in the first men’s singles.
B. R. Sankeerth dragged Canada level after a marathon match – at 77 minutes the longest of the day – with a 23-25 22-20 22-20 victory over Jonathan Matias.
Donnians Oliveira handed the initiative back to the South Americans, after another three-game battle saw him prevailing 21-19 18-21 21-13 over Victor Lai.
The following two doubles encounters were less demanding.
Yang picked himself up to combine with Nyl Yakura and beat Fabricio and Francielton Farias 21-17 21-19. Kevin Lee keviand Ty Alexander Lindeman then claimed a 21-18 21-9 win over Matias and pomArtur Silva Pomoceno to hand Canada the title and the bragging rights for at least another two years.
The Canadians, however, missed the chance for a double as the women’s team fell 3-0 to USA in their final earlier in the day.
The success snapped the Americans’ run of consecutive losses by the same score to their opponents in the last two title matches (2018, 2020). Their previous continental crown came in 2016.
Both the champions have thus secured their berths at the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals 2022 in Bangkok, Thailand in May.