📸Marcello Zambrana @marcellozambrana
By Tim Johnson
The 2025 WWR Americas Championship took place in Sao Paulo, Brazil from 11-15 July. In similar fashion to other Championships, this was an event that showed the power of our sport to inspire so many through the excellent athletic performances of the athletes. Team USA dominated throughout the competition and were deserved winners of their eight title in the nine times the event has been held. They defeated Brazil in the Gold medal match 61 – 47. Brazil achieved their highest ever zone championship placing which is testament to the development of the sport within their country.
The Bronze Medal match was another display of the overall development within the region as Canada narrowly defeated Colombia in what can only be described as an epic battle and an overtime final score of 49 – 48.
The event was held at the Brazilian Paralympic Training Centre, a national facility for all Paralympic disciplines. This will also be the venue for the 2026 WWR World Championship. The two highest placing teams, not already qualified, attained qualification to next year’s World Championship. As Brazil are host next year, the teams achieving qualification are USA and Canada.
This was the first time that eight teams attended the WWR Americas Championship which shows the increased investment in the sport in South America has been fruitful. The remaining results were in 5th place Argentina, 6th place Chile and Paraguay 7th place. In their first appearance at the Championship Peru placed 8th.
As part of ongoing efforts to support and empower developing nations within the sport, a series of training games were held for developing nations. These sessions provided valuable on-court experience and developmental opportunities for emerging officials.
In alignment with this initiative, we are proud to announce that three Brazilian candidates have successfully earned their provisional referee license. Please join us in welcoming Luiz Claudio Santos, Ronei Wesley Alves dos Reis and Diogo Lopes da Silva to the rugby referee family.
There were also two Brazilian trainee classifiers attending the event gaining valuable experience with the aim of achieving international certification in future.
Brazilian hosts were fantastic throughout the event and it was a pleasure to experience their amazing hospitality again on the final evening at an offsite venue. The athlete tournament awards were presented during this function to the following. Congratulations to these deserving athletes.
| Class | Athlete | Team |
| 0.5 | Lucas Junqueira | Brazil |
| 1.0 | Carlos Montoya | Colombia |
| 1.5 | Yannick Racicot | Canada |
| 2.0 | Julian Vargas | Colombia |
| 2.5 | Sarah Adam | USA |
| 3.0 | Charles Aoki | USA |
| 3.5 | Julio Braz | Brazil |
| MVP | Gabriel Feitosa | Brazil |
Special mention must go to the LOC and all the volunteers for all their efforts making this a huge success. We look forward to being welcomed back next year for the 2026 WWR World Championship from 18 – 23 August.
