Fabiana Murer shattered the Pan American Games pole vault record by 20cm on Monday and helped Brazil tie its record 29 gold medals from Santo Domingo four years ago.
In women's soccer, defending champ Brazil beat Mexico 2-0 and will play the US in the final. The two nations also will decide the women's basketball tournament.
Murer, fourth in the world rankings, cleared 4.6m in three attempts, breaking the former record of 4.4m by US pole vaulter Melissa Mueller in 2003.
PHOTO: AFP
"It was wonderful," Murer said. "But I have to confess that I was a bit nervous when the competition started, but then I decided to start having fun and got the gold."
With the gold guaranteed, Murer attempted to surpass her personal best mark of 4.66m, but failed to clear 4.68m. US pole vaulter April Steiner matched the former Pan Ams record for silver and Cuba's Yarisley Silva recorded a personal best of 4.3m.
With Murer's victory, Brazil matched its 2003 gold medal with six days left to surpass the mark.
The US leads with 60 golds and Cuba is second with 31. Canada trailed with 15.
Olympic silver medalist Yipsi Moreno of Cuba repeated as women's hammer throw champion. She threw 75.2m to break her own Pan Ams record by 95cm and comfortably won by more than 6m to retain the title she won in Santo Domingo. She won the silver in 1999.
"I've practiced a lot to succeed, but I wasn't expecting to overcome myself," Moreno said. "With today's results, I believe the world record is not as far as I thought."
Russian Tatyana Lisenko holds the world record with 78.61m.
Cuban Yarelis Barrios won the women's discus throw with 61.72m, 1cm more than countrywoman Yania Ferrales. Brazil's Elisangela Adriano was third with 60.27m.
US runner Sara Slattery won the women's 10,000m and Ed Moran of the US the men's 5,000m, both in record time.
Brazilian Yane Marques won the modern pentathlon -- which combines shooting, fencing, swimming, equestrian and running -- more than 200 points ahead of second-place Monica Pinette of Canada. US athlete Mickelle Kelly was third. All three athletes secured spots in next year's Beijing Olympics.
Strong winds destroyed part of the softball venue and forced organizers to postpone the start of that competition and the men's water skiing jump preliminaries at Rodrigo de Freitas Lake.
Parts of the plastic roof at Cidade do Rock Stadium were displaced and a tent at the venue's medical center damaged. The venue has caused the most problems for organizers.
Baseball, also held at Cidade do Rock, was delayed three times last week because of similar problems. The first games were postponed because of trouble with the stadium's lighting and then two other delays were caused because of muddy fields. Because of the delays, the bronze medal game in baseball was not played.
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