The Yuri Alvear Combat Arena, which can house 500 spectators, was recently built in Jamundí and its first use is due to be at the first-ever Junior Pan American Games.

Alvear, the judoka the venue is named after, won a Rio 2016 silver medal in the women's under-70-kilogram division and is a three-time world champion.

At London 2012, Alvear, who is from Jamundí, won a bronze medal, while she has also won two silver and two bronze medals at the senior Pan American Games.

Amadeus Dias de Moura Jr, sports director of the Pan American Judo Confederation, was impressed with the Yuri Alvear Combat Arena.

"I am very happy," Dias de Moura said. 

"I saw everything very well organised and that will make our work much easier. 

"I am surprised because it is a new and very good venue, which has the name of a great champion such as Yuri Alvear."

Cali 2021 sports director Marcela Ramón added that the venue "meets the technical conditions according to the operational plan that was presented to them", so the visiting officials were "very happy".

Jamundí is south of Cali but still in the Valle del Cauca department, of which Cali is the capital.

Cali 2021 will be the first edition of the Junior Pan American Games.

The event is due to take place from November 25 to December 5, with Panam Sports blaming a two-and-a-half-month delay on the COVID-19 pandemic.

Yet Cali has been the epicentre for protests against Colombia's President Iván Duque, leading to a violent crackdown and dozens of deaths nationwide.

An Amnesty International report last month concluded that the authorities in Cali were guilty of "the use of lethal weapons against protesters, excessive and unlawful use of less lethal weapons such as tear gas, unlawful detentions and torture" - and that this was "the modus operandi implemented throughout the country".