Ivan Silva

Paris, July 31 (RHC) - Without being able to put into practice everything he had planned, Cuban Ivan Silva said goodbye today to the judo competition of the Olympic Games, although he pushed his complicated opening bout beyond the limit.

On the tatami, and in his initial presentation at the Arena del Campo de Marte, Silva found out that the strategy designed to face the Kyrgyz Erlan Cherov would not have much future.

As the minutes went by, the opponent made him look obvious to the referee, who started by warning both judokas, and repeated the dose to the Cuban in the face of the greater intensity shown by Cherov, bronze medalist in the most recent world championship.

At the end of the regulation time without a winner, the fight went to the decision by golden point, without much change. Silva never found a way to show more initiative and the third shido came as an inevitable punishment.

After this result, all hopes of seeing a Cuban on the podium rest on the performances of Idalys Ortiz and Andy Granda, both scheduled for August 2.

It depends on them that judo maintains the tradition of contributing at least one medal to the delegation in the last ten Olympic editions.