Baseball
Cuban slugger Alfredo Despaigne Rodriguez hit 4-3 on Tuesday, with 1 home run, 1 double and 4 RBIs to break a losing streak of only 2 hits in the past 11 innings during the weekend sub-series against the Orix Buffaloes of the Japanese Baseball League.
The 4th batter and designated of Chiba Lotte Marines thus enjoyed of his 5th modasho campaign, i.e. a match with 3 or more hits, the 11th homer and his 30th RBI in 40 games in the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB).
With these 3 hits, the Cuban star's AVE rose to 297 (148-44) and increased to 642 his slugging average, because in the last 10 games he has batted 472 (38-18) with 11 RBIs and 4 homers.
Meanwhile, in the clash of Yokohama DeNA BayStars, Yulieski Gourriel Castillo was 4-0, with 2 strikeouts, so he fell to 316 average.
Basketball
The Canadian women's basketball team lost 69-66 to Cuba in a world championship tune-up game.
Trailing 28-22 at halftime, the Canadians rallied to take the lead in the final minutes of the 4th quarter but Cuba tied it in the final minute to force overtime and held on for the victory.
Miranda Ayim of London, Ont., led Canada with 18 points and 9 rebounds while Edmonton's Katherine Plouffe added in 11 points and 5 rebounds.
Head coach Lisa Thomaidis of Dundas said Canada had some missed opportunities, and showed a lot of resilience coming back from halftime deficit while Cuba played with a lot of physicality and I thought we handled that better in 2nd half... unfortunately, we missed opportunities, missing 15 free throws and a number of defensive block outs that gave them 2nd-chance points," she said.
Kia Nurse had 3 points while fellow Hamiltonian Shona Thorburn snared a rebound. Now, Canada faces Spain on Saturday at 1 p.m. eastern before heading to Turkey for the September 27th-Oct. 5th at FIBA World Championship.
Judo
Cuba will field 8 judokas at the upcoming IJF World Junior Championship, to be held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida from Oct. 22nd-26th.
The squad will be led by Gusmary Garcia, 2013 world champion in the over 70 kg category, who this time competes in the over 78 kg division, according to Cuban Jit sports news website.
Garcia is 1 of 4 women competing for Cuba, along with Maylin del Toro (63 kg), bronze medal winner at the 2013 world championships in Ljubljana, and one of Cuba's best chances for a medal.
Rounding out the women's quartet is Adilaidis Lemus (57 kg) and Nairelis Fuentes (70 kg), both new to international competition, but "with the potential to shine in their first appearances on international tatamis," Jit reported.
The men's squad features Magdiel Estrada (73 kg), who competed at the 2013 Rio de Janeiro and 2014 Cheliabinsk world championships; Ivan Silva (81 kg), bronze medal winner at the Olympic Youth Games in Nanjing, China; Leilandy Alain Puentes (60 kg), and Gleydiel Camilo Hourrutunier (66 kg).
Volleyball
Cuba lost 3-0 to Belgium on the 1st day of the World Volleyball Championship, which takes place till next 12th in several Italian cities.
Headquartered in Bari, Cubans fell in Group D facing the Belgians, with partials of 15-25, 12-15 and 16-25, in 1 hour and 7 minutes, with vast superiority of the Europeans.
However, the top scorer of the game was the Caribbean of only 14 years old, Melissa Vargas, who accumulated 15 points, the only one in her team that exceeded 10 units, followed by Sulian Matienzo with 8.
Laura Aeyrman (14), Lise Van Hecke (11) Els Vindesteene (11) and Charlotte Leys (10) were key figures in the victory of the winning team, which dominated all possible statistics.
Cuban Juan Carlos Gala's young disciples will bump into Puerto Rico on Wednesday, and Japan on Thursday; then, after a break, will take on China and Azerbaijan on Saturday and on Sunday, respectively.
