Baseball
The amazing team of Artemisa and the runner-up Matanzas share the 2nd place of the 54th Cuban Baseball Championship, which continues being led by Ciego de Ávila.
Artemisa's Los Cazadores beat 4-2 to Holguin, with offensive highlight of the designated batter Osmel Fraga, author of 1 homer and 2 trailers; the victory corresponded to promising lefty Misael Villa and 4th rescue of veteran closer José Ángel García.
In turn, Matanzas' Los Cocodrilos beat 4-2 to Las Tunas, supported by the solid pitching performance of skillful Joel Suárez, who spread 4 hits and 2 cleans in 7 innings, supported by a couple of driven ins by Yasiel Santoya, Norel González Delgado and Jefferson, each one.
Thus, Artemisa and Matanzas are tied in 2nd place with 10-6, 2 games from the leader Ciego de Avila (12-4) that finished Granma with a 4-3 closed on Sunday journey.
Yunier Cano scored their 4th victory despite being punished with 4 hits and 1 clean in one and a half episode, supported by Yadir Rabbi's 4th rescue, while Yorelvis Charles excelled with a homer and 3 RBIs for the Avilanians' Los Tigres.
In other Sunday results, Pinar del Rio surpassed 8-5 to Sancti Spiritus, Isla de la Juventud 5-0 to Villa Clara, Mayabeque 14-9 to Camaguey, Santiago de Cuba 11-3 to Guantanamo, and Cienfuegos smashed 13-5 to Industriales.
Football
The Cuban Sub-21 soccer team concluded its training tour by Central-America with 1 win, 1 draw and 1 defeat, as part of their preparation for Veracruz-2014.
Cubans fell 3-1 to Honduras in Tegucigalpa on Saturday in their final tally blanks, while in El Salvador, the Cubans had 1 win and 1 draw against the home team.
"In general, there was a well-trained team willing to win on the court and with its own personality, although at times they lost concentration," explained Oliet Rodriguez, Cuban head coach.
Once at home, the team will also have a couple of before traveling to Mexico since early November to complete the brewing cycle to Veracruz 2014.
Chess
Cuban GM Leinier Dominguez faces this Monday Italian GM Fabiano Caruana in the penultimate round of the Grand Prix in Baku, in which he goes in last place and seeks his 1st victory.
Leinier faces Caruana, head of the tournament and the 2nd World ELO owner (2844 points), with white figures.
Caruana and Leinier met 3 times in the previous Grand Prix and the result was even, 1 win, 1 loss and 1 draw.
Leinier suffered his 3rd defeat on Sunday, losing to Russian Dmitry Andreikin, starting in the 9th round.
This was the Leinier's 3rd defeat, who with only 3 points, now ranks last one among the 12 contestants.
A missing 2 rounds to go, the classification exhibits a tie at the top among 6 players, all with 5 points, but the tiebreaker continues to favor the Italian Caruana, ahead of Nakamura, Karjakin, Gelfand, Radjabov and Svidler.
Crime Controls 25% of World Sports, Anti-doping Chief Says
In a recent article published by Reuters in London and edited by Mitch Phillips, journalist Ossian Shine affirms that the man tasked with eliminating drug cheats says criminal gangs now control a quarter of all world professional sports.
The reporter continues saying that David Howman, director-general of the World Anti-Doping Agency, called for everyone involved in the fight against sports corruption to band together to ensure the "bad guys" don't win.
"The biggest threat to sports is organized crime," Howman told delegates in London for a conference on securing sports... Don't let us compartmentalize it into match-fixing or bribery, it's organized crime. And I think organized crime controls at least 25% of world sports in one way or another."
Howman also said those who were distributing drugs, steroids, HGH (Human Growth Hormone) and erythropoietin (EPO) and so on, are the same characters who corrupt athletes and pay money to fix games.
On this touchy aspect, Mr. Howman textually told delegates that "...they're the same bad guys." "Now, the good guys have to prevail. Who are the good guys? Let's get them together and make sure they can work out a plan. Because, otherwise, the bad guys are going to win."
