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Guatemala have won the Juegos Centroamericanos. The Central American tournament took place on Saturday and Sunday in Costa Rica. It was organized together by both Sudamérica Rugby and the Federación de Rugby de Costa Rica.
Competing were Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Panama. They were all represented in both the Women’s and Junior divisions of the Juegos Centroamericanos.
On Day One Costa Rica was the best Women’s side. Las Ticas started strongly, downing El Salvador 43-0. Later in the day they overcame Panama 17-10 and Guatemala 14-12.
Guatemala’s narrow loss to Costa Rica was the side’s one defeat. Earlier the Guatemalans had defeated Panama 27-7 and Nicaragua 32-0.
Day One results meant Guatemala faced El Salvador to open Day Two. It was followed by Costa Rica vs Nicaragua. From there Guatemala and Costa Rica would dispute the title. A highly competitive opening half saw one try per team and the scores were locked at 7-7 at the interval.
Costa Rica went ahead in the second half but the 14-7 lead would not be enough. Instead two tries from Guatemala gave the Guatemaltecos a 19-14 victory.
In the junior men’s competition Costa Rica won on Sunday thanks to overcoming Guatemala by a scoreline of 12-0. With it Costa Rica was crowned the inaugural Centroamericanos Champions. The win was by two tries to zero but it was the defensive effort which proved differential.
International competition in Central America is far from over for the year. Managua, Nicaragua is to be the setting for the Central American Games in December. Rugby is to feature for the first time in the competitions history. The seven countries at the Games are Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama.
