SPORTS NEWS / Tuesday, May 30

Cuba attended for the first time the annual Memorial Day running festival that took place in Boulder, Colorado, in the United States.

This 39th edition of the Bolder Boulder festival had the unprecedented presence of a men's and women's team from the Caribbean island.

The Cuban squad was made up of six athletes includes women Dailin Belmonte, five-time national half-marathon champion; Yudileyvis Castillo, a five-time national marathon champion; and Milena Perez, Cuba’s record-holder in the steeplechase.

While the men registered for this race were Henrry Jaen, a four-time winner of the Havana Marathon, Yuleidys La O, one of the country’s top performers in the 5,000 and 10,000-meter events and Yusnier Fuoman.

A day with draws in all games was held this Monday in the Elite group of the Capablanca Memorial tournament, which is played for the second consecutive year in Varadero, in the western province of Matanzas.

The first-ever tournament winner and seven-time champion, Ukrainian GM Vassily Ivanchuk, continued to miss his first win and in the third round divided the point against Polish counterpart Kacper Piourun.

In a duel between leaders, also shared the unit, GM Samuel Shankland and Krishanan Sasikiran, of the United States and India, respectively.

Finally, the only Cuban present in the main group, GM Isan Ortiz signed peace with the Peruvian Emilio Cordoba.

After three days, Shankland and Sasikiran lead the tournament with two points, escorted by Cuban Ortiz, Ukrainian Ivanchuk and Peruvian Cordoba, all with 1.5 points.

This Tuesday in the fourth round, Ivanchuk will play with black pieces to Cuban Ortiz, in one of the most interesting games.

Spain recovered more than three million doses of fake drugs and arrested 14 people in the largest European operation against the traffic of anabolic substances and banned substances in sport.

The Civil Guard hitted the biggest blow in Europe to the elaboration, falsification and distribution of these doping substances for athletes, with the dismantling of a network led by important athlets.

According to the source, the so-called Dianu operation had its main cell in the southern city of Malaga (Andalusia), where these illicit products were marketed without sanitary control.

The chief commander of the Specialized Crime Group of the Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard, Juan Jesus Reina, explained that the criminal organization received the stimulants from India and China, sometimes already packaged with own brands.

In addition of Malaga, the network was based also in Alicante, Valladolid and Valencia. It had ramifications in France and Germany, and made 3,340 shipments of these prohibited drugs to gyms in and outside Spain in the last two years.

Of the 14 detainees - among them an expert physician in sports medicine - all are Spanish except two Venezuelans, said Reina.

The anabolics were distributed between bodybuilders through two outstanding athletes of this modality, who ran installations in the localities of Valladolid, Fuengirola and Arroyo de Miel (Malaga).
 

According to the Unit, the criminal group could have entered for this activity about 500 thousand euros in the last three years.
 

"All substances were distributed in the world of bodybuilding, except some that were used as sexual enhancers," said the police officer.
As part of the operation, 25 records were taken and more than 120 different types of substances were used, such as steroids, anabolic, hormones and active ingredients and sexual enhancers.
 

In addition, bank accounts were blocked for more than two million Euro and confiscated machinery and tools for the manufacture and conditioning of stimulants.