Havana, December 23 (PL)-- Venezuelan Yulimar Rojas, Cuban Luis Orta and the Brazilian team Fluminense were elected today the best of Latin America and the Caribbean in 2023 in the annual sports survey of the Prensa Latina news agency.
Rojas deserved the award of best female athlete after receiving 35 votes, including those cast by the last media that sent their chosen ones: the Colombian portal Notipacocol and the prestigious radio station CMHW, known as the radio queen of the Center, due to its location in the city of Santa Clara, capital of the central Cuban province of Villa Clara.
The world record holder and world champion in the triple jump finished with a wide lead over her followers, Cuban canoeist Yarisleidis Cirilo (seven votes), Dominican sprinter Marileidy Paulino (four) and Peruvian walker Kimberly García (three), while seven other athletes received at least one mention.
Orta, Greco-Roman wrestler, universal, Central Caribbean and Pan American titleholder in the year just concluded, received the preference of 36 media, unreachable for the Venezuelan baseball player Ronald Acuña (seven) and the Argentinean soccer star Leo Messi (three), in a list that included 12 other figures with at least one vote.
Orta added this recognition to his election as best athlete of the year in Cuba and the award for the most outstanding Greco-Roman wrestler on the planet in 2023, while the Venezuelan triple jumper was also named by World Athletics as the best in the world in the area of field events (jumps and throws).
Fluminense was the best team of the year in the Latin American and Caribbean region after receiving 30 votes, three times as many as Argentina's national soccer team (10), in a list in which 12 other teams from various sports were also recognized by at least one of the 57 participating media.
The top historical winners so far are Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt among men, while among women, Venezuelan Rojas equaled Colombian triple jumper Caterine Ibargüen.
Bolt, reigning world record holder in the 100 (9.58 seconds) and 200 meters (19.19), won six times in this poll (2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016), while Ibargüen had five (2011, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018), now overtaken by Rojas, winner in the 2017, 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023 editions.
Collectively, Argentina's soccer team is the top winner with six trophies (1986, 1990, 2001, 2008, 2014 and 2022).The traditional Prensa Latina poll began to be carried out in 1964, an edition won by Cuban Enrique Figuerola, runner-up in the Tokyo Olympic Games in 100 meters, and in 1980 it was decided to include the category of Best Team of the Year. Since 1988, men and women began to be chosen separately.
