Pan American Games 2023: Brazil's Stephan Barcha takes individual jumping title as Olympic quotas go to Colombia, Argentina, and hosts Chile
Barcha edged out Kent Farrington for gold with another American, 2015 champion McLain Ward, taking bronze.
Stephan Barcha held his nerve on board Chevaux Primavera Imperio Egipcio to take the Pan American Games 2023 equestrian jumping title on Friday (3 November).
Barcha had over five faults in hand over USA's Kent Farrington going into the final round of the competition after three consecutive clear rounds in Quillota's Escuela de Equitación Regimiento Granaderos, some 100km north-west of the Chilean capital Santiago.
And despite having one obstacle down, Barcha and his bay mare were quick enough not to incur any time faults and prevail with a total of 8.06. The title stays in Brazil after Marlon Zanotelli won the nation's first individual equestrian crown four years ago in Lima.
Farrington and Landon were second on 9.64 with another American, 2015 Pan American Games champion and two-time Olympic team gold medallist McLain Ward, third on 15.34 atop Contagious.
Laura Kraut, who won Beijing 2008 gold and Tokyo 2020 bronze with Ward, lay second going into the final round but had two fences down to finish out of the medals by just 0.05.
Canada's Amy Millar thought she had won bronze with a clean round but was ruled to have dislodged a fence despite her team appealing that the barrier had only fallen after she had completed her round.
After two hours of deliberations, and a delay to the medal ceremony, she was eventually classified in sixth place.
With USA, Canada, and Mexico having already obtained Paris 2024 team quotas in Wednesday's team competition, and Brazil doing so at last month's Jumping Nations Cup Final, three individual Olympic quota spots went to the single best-placed riders outside of those four nations.
The first went to Roberto Teran of Colombia in seventh place with Argentina's Jose Maria Larocca (eighth) and Agustin Covarrubias of Chile (13th) also securing coveted spots in Paris.
As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.
Pan American Games 2023 Individual Jumping - results
1. Stephan De Freitas Barcha (BRA) 8.06
2. Kent Farrington (USA) 9.64
3. McLain Ward (USA) 15.34
4. Laura Kraut (USA) 15.39
5. Pedro Veniss (BRA) 16.26
6. Amy Millar (CAN) 17.71
7. Roberto Teran Tafur (COL) 18.23 - secures Paris 2024 individual quota for Colombia
8. Jose Maria Larocca (ARG) 18.27 - secures Paris 2024 individual quota for Argentina
9. Beth Underhill (CAN) 21.02
10. Leandro Moschini (ARG) 21.05
11. Eugenio Garza Perez (MEX) 21.63
12. Ignacio Maurin (ARG) 22.69
13. Agustin Covarrubias (CHI) 24.96 - secures Paris 2024 individual quota for Chile
14. Tiffany Foster (CAN) 26.40
15. Luis Fernando Larrazabal (VEN) 26.41
16. Rene Lopez Lizarazo (COL) 29.72