The day that Tomás González won gold

Juan Raffo performed brilliantly in the rings. Photo: Vasilios Devletoglou
Chile´s Makarena Pinto won bronze in the vault. Photo: Vasilios Devletoglou
Brazil´s Olympic champion Arthur Zanetti won the rings, while Chile´s Juan Raffo, right, claimed bronze. Photo: Vasilios Devletoglou

When Tomás González stepped out onto the floor at the packed Gimnasio Polideportivo at 5pm yesterday afternoon, the silence of the Chilean crowd was total.

A little over two hours later, the lucky 5,000 fans present sang the national anthem loudly and with pride as their favourite celebrated winning the South American Games gold on home soil.

Yes, it was quite an afternoon in Santiago. The pressure had been on González to win gold – he´d won seven South American Games medals before but not the top one (four silver and three bronze).

At the Olympics Games in London two years ago, he performed brilliantly to finish fourth in both of his strongest disciplines – floor and vault.

So this was his big chance before his home crowd to reach the top of the podium.

The 28-year-old was the first to take to the floor and performed an almost flawless routine. He knew it was good and punched the air at the end, while the crowd, who had held their breath in silence, roared their approval.

His score of 15.666 put the pressure on his rivals and it was his team-mate Juan Pablo González who came closest to toppling him with 14.966. Colombia´s Jossimar Calvo claimed the bronze with 14.666.

Afterwards, a delighted González said: “I´m very happy with my result because that signifies a world or Olympic final if the points stay the same from here to Rio 2016.”

At the same time as the men´s floor competition, the women´s vault was taking place – and there was more joy for Chile. While Brazilian duo Jade Barbosa and Isabelle Cruz took the top two places, Makarena Pinto claimed an excellent bronze for the hosts.

Tomás González was soon back in action in the pommel horse, but couldn´t challenge the top performers in one of his weaker events, finishing fifth.

Colombia´s Jhonny Muñoz produced a top quality routine to take the gold, while it was silver and bronze for Brazil courtesy of Pericles Silva and Francisco Barretto respectively.

In the women´s asymmetric bars, there was a mixture of high-class performances and painful falls. Colombia bagged another gold through Bibiana Velez and her team-mate Yurany Avendaño picked up bronze. Brazil´s Barbosa had to settle for silver this time.

In the last event of the afternoon, Brazilian Olympic champion Arthur Zanetti showed his class to win gold in the rings, while Argentina´s Federico Molinari scooped silver. The afternoon finished on a high note for Chile with Juan Raffo winning the bronze.

Then it was time for the medal ceremonies and González reappeared to take the acclaim of the crown – and receive his precious gold medal. The anthems in the Games have been short, but the Chilean public didn´t want to stop singing when the music finished.

They continued to belt out the rest of the national anthem and made it an even more special moment for their big favourite. It was the perfect finale and it was no wonder González sported a smile from ear to ear.

He said: “I feel really proud and now I want to focus 100 per cent on the final of the vault.”

Perhaps the Chilean fans will be serenading him with another anthem later today.

Tags: gymnastics, Odesur, South American Games, Tomás González