Álvaro Beltrán
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| Born |
October 15, 1978 Tijuana, Mexico | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Álvaro Beltrán (born October 15, 1978), is a Mexican professional racquetball player. Beltrán was ranked fifth on the International Racquetball Tour (IRT) at the end of the 2012-13 season,[1] which was his first season playing full-time on the tour, since he suffered a serious knee injury prior to the 2009-2010 IRT season.
Professional career
Beltrán has been the highest ranked Mexican player ever on the IRT. He's been ranked in the top 10 IRT at season's end in 10 of the last 12 seasons since 2000-01, although Beltrán has not finished higher than #3.[2] Beltrán has been in 23 finals, winning once in the 2002-03 season. In all, he's made 128 appearances on tour putting him in 17th place all time.[2]
Beltrán's IRT career is highlighted by reaching the final of the US Open Racquetball Championships in 2010, becoming the first Mexican to do so. He lost that final to Kane Waselenchuk despite winning the first game of the final, which was Waselenchuk's first loss of a game in six US Open finals.
Also of note, Beltrán is the only player to beat IRT #1 Waselenchuk in a completed match, since Waselenchk's return to the IRT tour in the fall of 2008. That win occurred at the 2009 California Open, when Beltrán defeated Waslenchuk in four games in the semi-finals.[2]
International career
Beltrán is the only racquetball player to win World Championships in both singles and doubles. Beltrán won the 2000 Racquetball World Championships hosted by the International Racquetball Federation[3] in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, defeating American Rocky Carson in the final.[4] He has two doubles titles, which were both won with Javier Moreno. They first won at the 2006 Racquetball World Championships, defeating Americans Carson and Jack Huczek in the final, and won again in 2012, defeating Americans Tony Carson and Jansen Allen. Both doubles wins were in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Beltrán and Moreno also won the gold medals in doubles at the 2003,[5] and 2011 Pan Am Games. In 2003, they beat Americans Ruben Gonzalez and Mike Guidry in the final, and in the 2011 final, defeated Venezuelans Cesar Castillo and Jorge Hirsekorn. Beltrán also won gold in the team competition at the 2011 Pan Am Games.
In addition, Beltrán won three consecutive Pan American Racquetball Championships from 2007–2009, and he was the gold medalist at the 2010 Central American and Caribbean Games defeating countryman Gilberto Meija in the final.
References
- ↑ http://www.irt-tour.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=117&Itemid=187
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 http://www.bossconsulting.com/irt/ IRT Historical Data Archive
- ↑ http://www.internationalracquetball.com/worlds/03worlds.htm
- ↑ http://www.internationalracquetball.com/racquetball/recordbook/irf-recordsbooks/match-results.aspx
- ↑ http://www.proracquetball.net/irt/bios/beltran.html
External links
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