SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (April 21, 2021) --Team USA’s winning streak continued on day three of the rescheduled 2020 Pan American Championships, a pivotal Tokyo 2020 Olympic qualifier, as CJ Cummings defended his 73kg Pan American title. Teammates Mattie Sasser and Harrison Maurus added to Team USA’s medal count, bringing it to 14 medals in the first three days of this competition.

Cummings’ gold medal winning performance included breaking his own American record in the Snatch, improving the record to 155kg on his third attempt in the lift. He made 148kg and 142kg on his first two Snatch attempts. His record-breaking 155kg Snatch was good for silver in the lift, just shy of the current Pan American record holder from Venezuela’s 156kg lift.

“I felt really confident with the 155kg Snatch,” Cummings told USA Weightlifting after the competition. “In my mind I already had it made up, so what I did was just pulled it really hard and had to take a step back because I over-pulled it. It felt like an easy lift.”

Cummings, a Tokyo 2020 Olympic Hopeful, relied on his renowned strength in the Clean and Jerk to win gold in the lift and total, despite missing his American record attempt at 194kg. He made a solid opening attempt of 178kg before taking a big jump to 188kg on his second. It would stand for a gold medal in the lift and total. Combined with his 155kg Snatch, Cummings became the 73kg Pan American Champion with a 343kg total.

“I wanted to go six for six today, obviously I didn’t,” Cummings told USA Weightlifting after the competition. “All in all, it was a great performance and I’m just happy to have won another championship.”

Mattie Sasser, also vying for a spot on the Olympic Team, continued Team USA’s medal streak in the women’s 64kg session, taking bronze in the Clean and Jerk with a 125kg lift on her second attempt. Mattie made her opening attempt at 120kg, then tried 128kg on her last attempt, but missed.

“It didn’t quite go as planned, but I did my best and left everything I had on the platform,” Sasser told USA Weightlifting. “I fought really hard.”

Sasser’s best Snatch of 98kg landed her in fifth place in the lift and fifth place overall with a 223kg total.

Harrison Maurus, another Tokyo 2020 hopeful, rounded out the day for Team USA in the 81kg category, sweeping bronze. Maurus made his opening attempt of 150kg in the Snatch before missing 155kg on his second and third attempts. In the Clean and Jerk portion of the competition, Maurus secured bronze with an opening attempt of 190kg, a consistent weight for him. He missed 195kg and 197kg, on his second and third attempts,111 numbers we’ve seen from him before. Despite his attempts not going as planned, Maurus looks forward to hitting bigger numbers at his next competition.

“I had a really good training cycle coming into this competition,” he told USA Weightlifting at the end of the day. “I just lost it on the platform and left some bigger numbers out there.”

Tomorrow’s action at the 2020 Pan American Championships will see six members of Team USA take the competition platform: Meredith Alwine in the 71kg category, Jordan Cantrell and Christian Rodriguez Ocasio in the 89kg category. They’ll be followed by 2019 Pan American Champion, Kate Nye, lifting in the 76kg category. John Downey and Nathan Damron will finish the day for Team USA in the 96kg category.

Team USA Adds to Medal Haul on Day 3 of 2020 Pan Ams

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