With three golds on Tuesday Mexico closed the gap on second-placed Brazil in the medal table, while Cuba – second all-time Pan Am medal winners after the United States – finally started to flex its muscles after a slow start to the games, winning both of Tuesday's taekwondo finals.

Local rhythmic gymnast Cynthia Valdez won her second gold in two days, this time in the individual clubs category.  Valdez finished behind Julie Zetlin of the United States in the ribbon final, taking her medal tally for the games to five. (Zetlin has four medals: three golds and one silver.)

Together with her four medals in Rio de Janeiro 2007 and one in Santo Domingo in 2003, Valdez, 23, is now Mexico's leading Pan American Games medal winner in gymnastics.

Mexico also won two rowing golds on Lake Zapotlan in Ciudad Guzman, as did the United States.

With nine golds, Mexico just needs one to equal Brazil's 10.  The host nation is also one behind Brazil in the overall medal total: 29-30.

Canada also had a productive day, picking up three golds to move up to fourth place in the table. Rosannagh Maclennan won the women's individual trampoline event after her compatriot Karen Cockburn, a silver medallist at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and hot favorite for the gold medal, surprisingly withdrew at the last minute.  Fellow Canadian Keegan Soehn won the men's competition. Canada's other gold was in the women's cycling team pursuit.

The United States, however, pulled further ahead of the pack on Tuesday, ending the day on 62 medals, more than twice Brazil's total.

Early in the day, Miranda Wilder of the United States triumphed in the women's trap shooting final. And in the evening pool session at the Scotiabank Aquatics Center, U.S. swimmers won four of the five gold medals up for grabs. Spoiling the slam dunk was Brett Fraser of the Cayman Islands in the men's 200 meters freestyle.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the day was the victory by Sergio Sanchez of Guatemala over U.S. favorite Daryl Szarenski in the men's 50-meter final. This was only Guatemala's eighth gold medal in Pan American Games history.

Cuba – second all-time Pan Am medal winners after the United States – finally started to flex its muscles after a slow start to the games, winning both of Tuesday's taekwondo finals and moving up to 7th in the medal table.