Baseball
Cuba beat South Korea 3-1 and tied the series of 2 friendly matches prior to their participation in the 2015 WBSC Premier 12 Baseball Tournament, to be played from November 8th-21st.
In the Gocheok Sky Dome majestic stadium Cubans ignored the previous setback and connected 9 hits facing submarine pitching while Cuban pitching stopped the South Korean offensive, highlighting for starter Yosvani Torres and reliever José Ángel García.
Cuba took the lead from the opening chapter with highlights of Julio Pablo Martínez, Stailer Hernandez' double and 2 driven in by Yuliesky Gourriel, 4th at bat with Alfredo Despaigne as 5th at bat and designated batter, who all were subsequently supported by Lourdes Gourriel's batting.
After 4 scoreless innings with no liberties, the right-handed Yosvani Torres was followed by Freddy Asiel Alvárez and Jonder Martinez, the latter gave up the only run of the hosts, while Yunnier Cano and Héctor Manuel Mendoza closed despite symptoms of control.
The Cuban team is now moving to Taichung, Taiwan, to prepare their 1st game of the tournament against Canada on November 10th.
Volleyball
The main Cuban pairs, Sergio Gonzalez-Nivaldo Diaz and Lianma Leila Flores and Martinez will attend the 7th and last stop of NORCECA Beach Volleyball Circuit, scheduled from November 16th to 23rd in Trinidad and Tobago, the last regional stop that gives double points for the world ranking, said Daniel Toledo, national methodologist of that discipline.
Likewise, the management reiterated the presence of these Cuban duets in the World Tour 2016, also key regional Olympic qualifying tournament to Rio de Janeiro 2016.
In 2015, the male duo, 9th at the World Championship in the Netherlands, closed 3rd in the Toronto 2015 Pan-American Games and won stops of Cayman Islands' and Varadero's NORCECA circuits while the female duo was ranked 33rd in the world event and took the silver medal.
Each National Federation must enroll two pairs of each gender in regional tournaments for Olympic tickets.
Also from volleyball we learned that the opposite Rolando Cepeda and auxiliary Javier Jiménez debuted successfully in the Greek League on the payroll of PAOK club as regulars, which beat Panathinaikos team in September 4th in its 1st presentation.
Cepeda, in his 1st European incursion contributed with 24 points to 57% effective attacks that earned him the MVP category, while Jiménez, one of the 7 players who repeats within the Greek club, scored 23 points.
Last Wednesday, the date Europe Champions League was held, and PAOK team fell 1-3 against French sextet of Tours.
The Cuban volleyball expanded its presence in the European competitive scenario in the current campaign, as Javier Cepeda and 3 other young figures are enrolled in professional tournaments there: Osmany Uriarte plays with Turkey's Maliye Pilliango, meanwhile, the women, Melissa Vargas and Sulian Matienzo were hired by the Prostejov team from Czech Republic.
According to recent information provided by authorities of the Cuban Sports Institute, the number of 5 contracted players could be extended with 3 more others.
Badminton
The Cuban quartet beat South African in the opening of the team event of the World Junior Badminton Championship based at La Videna Center for High Performance of Lima, Peru, on Wednesday.
The Cubans won 5 games; in single (m) Veliz Bryan beat Ruan Snyman (21-11, 19-21 and 21-12) in 36 min., while the ladies, Melissa Ascuy, of only 16 years-old, ordered to Johanita Scholtz (21-10 and 21-11) and Adriana Artiz and Angel Herrera defeated Michael Jennings and Lehandre Schoeman 21-14 and 21-19 in 20 minutes, respectively, in the mixed doubles.
Meanwhile, among men rackets Angel and Bryan defeated Michael and Brandon Nel (21-12, 19-21 and 21-17) in half an hour in the men double category.
On Thursday, the Cuban team rival Spains, winner of Costa Rica also in their 5 clashes while in night caps defeated Thailand to complete its task in the C-2 Group against Costa Rica on Friday.
Led by coach Maykel Moreno, Cubans after finishing the collective lid on Sunday, attended by 40 countries, will take part in the individual lid November 10th to the 15th.
