Guatemala had an outstanding start to the 2026 Santo Domingo Central American and Caribbean Games by closing the first official day of competitions with five medals. The national delegation placed fifth in the medal table, tied with the Dominican Republic.
Taekwondo led the Guatemalan harvest. María Alejandra Higueros won gold in women’s freestyle poomsae with 8,530 points to defend the title obtained in San Salvador 2023. Later, together with César Aguilar, he won silver in poomsae mixed pairs freestyle.
Aguilar completed the outstanding taekwondo performance by obtaining bronze in men’s individual traditional poomsae. In addition, badminton contributed another silver medal in the mixed team event, consolidating a promising start for Guatemala.
Badminton also had an outstanding performance. The national team, which had completed a perfect group stage with victories over El Salvador, Barbados, Venezuela and Cuba, played the final for gold against Mexico.
Although they lost 3-0, Guatemala took the silver medal in mixed teams. Kevin Cordón was one of the team’s leaders, while Christopher Martínez, Diana Corleto and Nikté Sotomayor also stood out during the competition.
Judo also contributed to the Guatemalan medal table. José Ramos won bronze in the minus 60 kilogram category after beating the Panamanian Bernabé Vergara in the repechage and later defeating the Mexican Moisés Rosado by ippon in just 33 seconds in the dispute for third place in what was another positive result for the national delegation in this first day of competitions in Santo Domingo.
The Guatemalan medal table of the day
- Gold: María Alejandra Higueros — Women’s Taekwondo poomsae freestyle
- Silver: María Alejandra Higueros and César Aguilar — Taekwondo poomsae freestyle mixed couples
- Silver: Badminton team — Mixed teams
- Bronze: César Aguilar — Men’s individual traditional poomsae taekwondo
- Bronze: José Ramos — Judo category minus 60 kilograms
Sunday’s day promises more emotions for Guatemala with the continuation of the badminton competitions in the individual double and mixed modalities as well as judo where Alejandro Morales in minus 81 kilograms and Keyla Navas in minus 63 kilograms will seek to get on the podium.
In sports shooting, Sebastián Bermúdez is in first place in the men’s skeet classification with 72 points while Emily Padilla occupies second position in the women’s branch with 67 points in what aims to be another day with real medal options for Guatemalan sport.