Cuba's Andy Granda moved up to third place in the world judo ranking (RM), after winning the gold medal in the individual tournament of the World Championship in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Havana, October 27 (ACN)-- Cuba's Andy Granda moved up to third place in the world judo ranking (RM), after winning the gold medal in the individual tournament of the World Championship in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

According to the website www.ijf.org, Granda climbed to the third place with 4432 points, after winning the title in the over 100 kilograms (kg) with a victory in the final against the Japanese Tatsuru Saito, new promise of this martial art in Japanese soil, who is ranked 18th (2400) in the world ranking.

Saito is currently the second best ranked judoka in Japan, as Kokoro Kageuma is 14th (2700) in the ranking.

In 2022, the competitions that give out points for the RM started and the 30-year-old Matancero won the Uzbek World Championships held this month and the Oceania Pan American Championships (September).

He also won bronze medals at the European Open Tournament (April) and the Antalya Grand Slam (April).

Also among the top 20 in the ranking are Cuba's Ivan Silva (90 kg-fourth), Idalis Ortiz (+78 kg-twelfth), Magdiel Estrada (73 kg-fifteenth) and Arnaes Odelin (57 kg-seventeenth).

For the RM, one place per country is distributed for the Olympic roster that guarantees the presence at the Paris 2024 Games.

Silva, 26 years old and Baku 2018 world runner-up, concluded on the fifth rung -discussed bronze- in Tashkent, where Ortiz -33 years old and Olympic (1-2-1) and world (2-2-4) multi medalist- finished seventh.

With these results and Granda's gold, Cuba secured the eighth place by nations in the world championship, which counted with the participation of 571 judokas -310 men and 261 women- from 82 countries.

Currently, the disciples of Yordanis Arencibia (f) and Julio Alderete (m) are intensifying their preparation to compete from November 22 to 28 in Panama in the qualifying tournament for the Central American and Caribbean Games of San Salvador 2023.

In this regard, Rafael Manso, president and national judo commissioner, added to the Cuban News Agency (ACN) that they plan to attend with full teams and doubling in two divisions -one male and one female.