The 2023 Junior Pan American Championships, men and women, will open on April 10 in Bridgetown, Barbados, with 7 men’s team and 7 women’s teams.
The top 3 teams in each gender will qualify for the 2023 Junior World Cup in Malaysia (men) and Chile (women).
It will be the 13th edition of the Junior Pan American Championship for the men (first one in 1978 in Mexico City) but only the 10th edition for the women (first one in 1988 in Buenos Aires, Argentina).
It will be the 3rd time that the flagship Junior Pan American competition is organized in Barbados, after 1996 (men only) and 2000 (women only).
It is also the 3rd time that the men’s and women’s competitions are organized together, after 2021 (in Santiago, Chile, with 7 men’s teams and 6 women’s teams) and 2012 (in Guadalajara, with a record… 13 men’s teams and 11 women’s teams, playing a combined 79 matches over 14 days!).
Men
On the men’s side, only Argentina, Canada and Chile have participated in all previous 12 editions, while the USA only missed the inaugural edition in 1978. Mexico participated in 10 out of the 12 competitions, and Trinidad & Tobago participated in 9.
At the other end of the spectrum, 2 teams participated in only 1 edition: Guatemala (in 2012) and Paraguay (in 2000).
Argentina stepped 11 times on top of the podium, only losing the Gold Medal once in 2021, to Chile (after shoot-out). However, Argentina went on to win the Junior World Cup a few months later in Bhubaneswar, India! Argentina also won the Junior World Cup in 2005 in Rotterdam.
Only 6 teams medalled since 1978: Argentina leads the honor role with 12 medals (in every single edition), with Canada and Chile tied behind with 9 medals. Far behind comes Cuba with 3 medals (in successive editions: 1988, 1992 and 1996) and the USA, surprisingly only medaling twice (2008 and 2021), with Mexico rounding up the roster with 1 medal in 2005.
Women
On the women’s side, only Argentina and the USA participated in all 9 previous editions, with Chile only missing one competition (1992) and Canada missing two (2008 and the original one in 1988).
3 teams participated in only 1 edition: Brazil (in 2012),Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico (in 2005).
Argentina won 7 of the 9 competitions, only leaving the top of the podium to the USA in 2008 and to Canada in 2021 (in difficult COVID conditions).
Just as on the men’s side, only 6 teams medalled since the first edition in 1988: Argentina and the USA both medaled 8 times (Argentina missing the podium in 2021 and the USA in 1992), followed by Canada (5 times) and Chile (4 times), with Trinidad & Tobago and Uruguay rounding up the honors with 1 medal each (in 1992 for T&T and in 2021 for Uruguay).
PAHF teams at the Junior World Cups
The Junior Pan American Championships qualifies teams for the following Junior World Cups; two, three or even four PAHF teams are qualified for the FIH flagship junior competition.
Since the creations of the FIH Junior World Cups (1979 for the men and 1989 for the women), Argentina was the only PAHF country able to step on the world podium: Argentina men won twice (2005 and 2021), and the Argentinian women also won twice (1993 and 2016), plus collected 3 Silver Medals (2001, 2009 and 2013) and 1 Bronze Medal (1997).
Argentina women have an outstanding record at Junior World Cup: not only did they participate in all **9 ** editions, they were always the top ranked PAHF team and stepped on the podium in 6 out of 9 participations!
