Calderano & Wu Clinch Pan American Games Gold and Olympic Qualification

Hugo Calderano (BRA) & Wu Yue (USA) are the 2015 Pan American Games Champions and have hence secured their position at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

The pair both won tight seven game matches in front of the capacity crowd today in Toronto, Canada.

2014 Youth Olympic Games bronze medalist Hugo CALDERANO was able to hold his nerve against his team mate and number one seed Gustavo TSUBOI (BRA) in the final, prevailing 11-6, 6-11, 4-11, 11-7, 13-11, 9-11, 11-2 to book his place at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, the city he has grown up in.

"I just cannot describe how I feel, it's incredible, there are no words. It was a tight match, it was always going to be a tight match, we know each other so well" said the 19 year old.

"I went two-one down; then I led three-two and 9-6 in the sixth game and lost that game; I cannot explain the seventh game. Now the feeling, it's just the same as last year when I won the bronze medal at the Nanjing Youth Olympic Games; today is the equal."

WU Yue continued the USA's dominance of the women's event, ensuring the USA took home the women's singles gold for the eighth time in ten attempts.

WU, who works part time at the table tennis bar SPiN New York as a coach, won an extremely tight final against GUI Lin (BRA) 11-8, 11-8, 4-11, 8-11, 10-12, 11-9, 11-7 to become the Pan American Champion.

"After winning the second game, I started to think too much about winning the gold medal; that's why I lost the next three", said 25 year old WU. "It was important that I really concentrated better."

"At the change of ends in the seventh game when I was losing 5-1, I didn't really change anything: I just tried to play my game, try to be the first to attack and eventually I won!"

The win means that WU is only the second confirmed member of Team USA for the Rio 2016 Olympics, which is something that WU has always dreamt about: "I feel amazing. I am going to the Olympic Games. This is a dream come true, I can't believe it."

The women's losing semi finalists Lily ZHANG (USA) and Caroline KUMAHARA (BRA) both take home the bronze medals as does Thiago MONTEIRO (BRA) and home town favourite Eugene WANG (CAN).

Earlier in the week Brazil claimed the men's team gold led by singles champion CALDERANO and USA bagged the women's, which means WU heads back to New York with two gold medals.

The table tennis world's attention now turns to North Korea where the GAC Group 2015 World Tour Pyongyang Open will take place on 29 July to 2 August 2015.

20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is www.aroundtherings.com, for subscribers only