Cuban Delegation to Veracruz 2014

Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermúdez, Politburo member and Cuba's first Vice-president of the Councils of State and Ministers, delivered the flag to the Cuban delegation that will participate in the XXII Central American and Caribbean Games in Veracruz, Mexico.

In a solemn ceremony in front of the Jose Marti Memorial at the Revolution Square, Mijain López, penta-world champion and twice Olympic champion in wrestling, received on behalf of his colleagues, the national flag they sworn to proudly represent in the next edition of these regional games from November 14th-30th.

Marabana-Maracuba Project

More than 463 foreign runners have been officially registered for Marabana-Maracuba Project 2014, a trend that will continue to increase.

Cuban runners interested in participating in various marathon distances have until next Friday to be registered at the event's office at the capital's Sports City Coliseum.

Carlos Gattorno, director of Marabana-Maracuba Project, said that the contest sponsors and partners have fulfilled their commitments, and they are already in the country the necessary technical means, including heart-of-the-art technology chip timing system.

He added that, as usual, local Radio Reloj radio station, will give the start to the popular race on Saturday November 15th at 10:00 am, held simultaneously throughout the country and on Sunday 16th of Marabana at 7:00 am.

Olympic Solidarity Course in Havana

The first Olympic gold medalist in Latin America, Cuban María Caridad Colón, welcomed the completion of the Olympic Solidarity Course of Women in Sports, based at the Tulip Hotel in the Cuban capital.

“This course with specialists across the whole country, is to me like another medal because we all have long wanted to organize an event of this type with the character and the support of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on the proposal of COC,” said the star athlete who added that the quality of Cuban women in sports is not only based on obtaining medals but also on their roles at all levels of the Sport Movement.

The main objective of this meeting that ends on November 1st, is to concrete and incorporate new ideas on how the activity of women in sports while promoting this activity at all levels in all the territories, she said.

Football
The Cuban Soccer team, U-17 category, beat St. Lucia 2-0 and closed in 3rd place in the finals of the Caribbean, which took place in Haiti's capital.

According to the official site of the event, Cubans dominated the ball and were better on the court at the Sylvio Cator Stadium, Port au Prince, to get its 2 goals in the 1st half time through Carlos Zebrango and Raycharles Herrera.

Thus, the disciples of Cuban coach Fidel Salazar finished with 3 wins and 1 single setback against Jamaica in the qualifiers of Group B, with 8 goals in favor and 3 against and secured a ticket to next year's World Pre-qualifying Tournament in Honduras.

Cuba has participated in two World Cups U-17, Scotland 1989 and Italy 1991.

Chess

The qualification of Isam Ortiz for the 2015 World Cup was Cuba's best performance at the Continental Chess Tournament recently held at the Brazilian region of Rio Grande do Norte.

The Cuban national champion won the rapid games tie break involving 6 players who totaled 8.5 points from 11 possible in the regular contest, where he finished 5th after beating the Paraguayan Neuris Delgado in the final round.

In the 15 minutes-matches phase, Ortiz earned 3.5 points, thanks to 2 wins and 3 draws; he was the only 1 unbeaten and led the standings ahead of Peruvian Julio Granda and the local Rafael Leitao, who reached 3 units per capita.

The website www.chess.results.com reported that the 4th player who won the ticket to next year World Cup was American Samuel Shankland, ahead of his countryman Alexander Shabalov and Argentine Alan Pichot.

The latter eliminated the Cuban Lazaro Bruzon in the regular tournament by beating him in the final round, so he achieved 7.5 points and finished 12th, far away than expected. Granda led that phase followed by Shankland and Shabalov.

200 players from 11 countries attended this competition which granted the first tickets of the area to the universal contest scheduled for Baku, capital of Azerbaijan.