Berchtold blasts to a win for Brazil

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The men's downhill race veteran Markolf  Berchtold (Brazil) ruled the day as he claimed the Pan American Continental title, ahead of Colombian Marcelo Gutiérrez and Joey Schusier (United States of America).

Earlier, Gutiérrez had been the fastest in qualifying, four seconds ahead of Berchtold, with Estrada a further second back.

The top American in the seeding run was Yeti Fox pro Joey Schusler, but he was a full 14 seconds behind Gutiérrez. However, the North American riders had crashed in the seeding run.

Berchtold improved for the final, beating Gutiérrez, but the Colombians lodged a protest, claiming that Berchtold had jumped the start gate, gaining a time advantage. The officials dismissed the claim, and Berchtold took the men's title, with Gutiérrez second. Schusler had come to the same conclusion as his teammate Holden and rode a smoother race, to move up significantly to win the bronze medal.

"I was having a really good run in qualifying," said Schusler, "but I crashed right at the end ... it still told me that I had a possible winning time. In the final I struggled a bit at the top, but nothing to really complain about. I played it more conservative, cautious, because it is such a long physical track."

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