Boxing
World multimedalist Yasniel Toledo returned to the roster of Cuba's Los Domadores team for its next match in the World Boxing Series.
Los Domadores should arrive today in China to face China's the Dragons on Friday in the 11th weekend of competitions, reinforced with the presence of Olympic London 2012 bronze medal in his present division of 64 kilograms.
The also double world runner-up is still undefeated after 4 bouts, but he was absent in the meet with Algeria and this cost him to lose the general leadership in his category.
The squad is completed by Yohanys Argilagos (49 kg), Andy Cruz (56), Arlen Lopez (75) and Erislandi Savon (91), the last two, 2nd in world ranking in their respective divisions.
The Cuban team leads Group A of the World Series with 30 points, while the Chinese Dragons owns the 6th place with 9 points.
In addition, 2 Cubans remain as first in their respective divisions, according to the ranking by Category recently updated at the official site of the World Series of Boxing (WSB), where Yosbany Veitía has been the best boxer of the 52 kilograms, and Julio Cesar La Cruz in 81, in this case tied with the Italian Valentino Manfredonia.
The position in this list is very important this season, since it means a direct ticket to Rio de Janeiro-2016 for the top 2 in each division, except 49, 91 and super heavy (91+), with only 1 possibility, and to define the places, the number of wins and how they are gotten, are taken into account.
Judo
The Cuban women's judo squad to attend the New York Teams tournament, will depart today to that American city, where they will face the national teams of Canada, France and the locals.
Ronaldo Veitía, Cuban head coach, told local ACN news agency that everything is ready to travel to the event, scheduled from March 25th to 31st.
About the quintet invited by the organizers, Veitía ratified to Dayaris Mestre, in the 48 kilograms, Yanet Bermoy (52), Aliuska Ojeda (57), Olga Masferrer (63) and Yalennis Castillo (78).
Although Cuba’s main purpose is to increase the number of bouts for future international commitments, these girls has good chances of getting a significant result because Bermoy, for instance, is an Olympic and world medalist.
In addition, Castillo is Beijing 2008 Olympic silver medalist, Ojeda finished 3rd at Havana 2014 Grand Prix, while Mestre won the regional title in Veracruz 2014.
Recently, 4 Cuban judokas competed in Women’s Sport Festival teams event, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Arnais Odelín (48), Anailis Dorvigni (57), Dalisdaivis Rodriguez (63) and Nairelis Fuentes (70), and took the 1st place.
Cuba’s next commitments this year will be in Canada, home of the continental qualifying tournament in Edmonton, in April, and the Pan-American Games in Toronto, in July.
In addition, they will attend the world championship in Astana, Kazakhstan, in August, looking for world-ranking points for Rio de Janeiro 2016.
Chess
Cuban GMs Isam Ortiz and Yuniesky Quesada won their respective matches at the Kolkata Open Chess tournament, in India, but they are still far from the leading trio.
Isam beat the local Arghyadip Das, while Yuniesky imitated him against Chinese Yinglun Xu and they both totaled 5 points to appear 11th and 13th places, in that order.
English Nigel Short, the host Surya Shekhar Ganguly and Chinese Shanglei Lu are the leaders with 6 units, as shown by the digital site of the organizers.
Short signed peace with Belarusian Kirill Stupak, Ganguly did the same against Chinese Chen Wang and Lu defeated the also local Shardul Gagare.
After the leaders there is another trio of players owning 5.5 points made up by Stupak, Wang and Indian Sandipan Chanda, who beat Belarusian Vladislav Kovalek.
The 8th and penultimate round will be played today with attractive matches covering a total of 130 contestants, which celebrates its 2nd version and has not been profitable for Cubans who in less than a month will be participating in the Teams World Cup in Tsakhadzhor, Armenia.
