Marifélix Sarría wins clean & jerk and total gold in Tepic, closing in on Lima 2027

October 10, 2026

Cuban weightlifter Marifélix Sarría closed out Cuba's campaign with gold at the Pan American Weightlifting Championships in Tepic, Mexico, the region's second qualifying event for the 2027 Pan American Games in Lima. Competing on Thursday, October 8, in the women's +86 kg division, the lifter from Cienfuegos won the clean and jerk and the overall total, and added a bronze in the snatch.

The snatch was the tougher half of her day. She made 105 and 110 kilograms but missed her third attempt at 114, finishing third behind Venezuela's Naryurys Pérez (115) and Mexico's Abdeel Noemi Rodríguez (111). In the clean and jerk, her strongest lift, she made 146 and then 151 kilograms and didn't need a third attempt to take the gold ahead of Rodríguez (146) and Pérez (145).

That added up to a 261-kilogram total, just one kilogram ahead of Pérez (260) and four ahead of Rodríguez (257). "With today's performance, Marifelix should qualify for the Lima Pan American Games without any problem," Cuba's national weightlifting commissioner, Camilo Reinaldo Ramírez, told the Cuban sports agency JIT, calling the event a success despite a short training period after the team's vacation break.

According to Ramírez, every Cuban lifter finished in the top eight of their division, a key requirement in the qualification process. Venezuela topped the team standings in both the men's and women's events. Sarría, the 2024 junior world champion and a triple silver medalist at the 2025 senior worlds, had already reached the podium at April's Pan American Championships in Panama City.