One of the highlights of the day was Cuba's Yunisleidy García, who overcame the disappointment of being disqualified from the 100 metres at last summer's World Athletics Championships in Budapest with a sensational victory in a time of 11.36 seconds. She was followed by the Guyana's Yasmine Abrams (11.52) and the best known of the competitors, Trinidad's Michelle-lee Ahye (11.53), a regular at Diamond League events.

To understand the significance of Yunisleidy Garcia's accomplishment, it's worth noting that this is the second gold medal for Cuban women in the 100 metres at the Pan American Games, a feat previously achieved only by the legendary Liliana Allen in Havana in 1991, which marked the peak of Cuban athletics with a total of 18 gold medals.

In the men's race, Dominican José Alnardo González pulled off an impressive feat, coming from last place at the 20m mark to win the 100m in a time of 10.30 seconds, just one hundredth of a second behind the Brazilian Felipe Bardi (whose best time is 9.97) and the Guyana's Emanuel Archibald.

The silver medallist at the last Central American and Caribbean Games in San Salvador was affected at the start by the two controversial false starts that delayed the start of the race and added to the tension and nervousness of the competition. It was the first time the Dominican Republic had won the men's 100 metres at the Pan American Games.

Another standout of the day was Mexico's Fernando Daniel Martínez, who was looking to defend the 5.000m title he won in Lima four years ago. He was looking to follow in the footsteps of his compatriots Juan Luis Barrios and Arturo Barrios, the only Mexicans to win consecutive gold medals at the distance. At 15:50.6, the final was the slowest in 69 years, since Argentina's Osvaldo Suárez won in Mexico in 1955. 

Despite the slow pace, Martínez managed to pull away on the final lap, but used his elbow to hold off American Kasey Knevelbaard, leading to a controversial. In the end, gold went to Knevelbaard (14:47.69), silver to Canada's Charles Philibert-Thiboutot (14:48.02) and bronze to Brazil's Altobeli da Silva (14:48.18). 

The Chilean crowd celebrated the result of the decathlon, just as they did on Monday when Lucas Nervi won gold in the discus. Chile's Santiago Ford went into the 1,500 metres with a lead of just over 100 points and, although it was not his best event, he made the perfect calculation to win the combined events with 7,834 points. He was followed by the Brazilian José Fernando Ferreira (7,748) and the American Ryan David Talbot (7,742).

Finally, in the men's long jump final, Colombia's Arnovid Dalmero won with a leap of 8.08 metres on his second attempt, ahead of Cuba's Alejandro Parada (silver) and Maikel Vidal (bronze), who both jumped 8.01 metres.

After the road events and the first two days of track and field athletics, the Peruvian delegation leads the medals table with three golds and three bronzes, followed by the Dominican Republic with three golds, and Chile and Colombia, with two golds and one silver each. The United States, on the other hand, fielded a team without any top athletes and have only one gold and four bronze medals. In terms of podium finishes, Brazil leads the way with nine (one gold, seven silver and one bronze medal).