Baseball

The Colombian baseball club Tigres de Cartagena is negotiating the possible acquisition of Cuban pitcher Freddy Asiel Alvarez, and according to Ernesto Ruiz, a baseball official in the Cuban province of Villa Clara, where Alvarez plays, negotiations are in progress.

Ruiz said that negotiations to hire 25 Cuban players began more than a year ago, but that conversations slowed down on the Colombian part and only the right-handed pitcher of Villa Clara is currently of interest.

Rumors started to spread before the recently concluded Premier 12, although not even the official website of the Tigres nor their social networks confirmed negotiations.

Several years ago, Cuba authorized the hiring of its sports athletes by foreign professional leagues and baseball teams --already playing in Mexico, Japan and Canada-- and widened its possible destinations to Panama, Colombia, Australia, Nicaragua and South Korea.

And another news note about baseball says that the Head of the Referees and Rules Commission of Cuba, Luis Daniel Del Risco, announced the agreement established between the Cuban Federation of Baseball and the Panamanian Federation of Baseball (FEDEBEIS) to allow the participation of Panamanian referees in baseball tournaments of the Caribbean island and vice versa, as a way of exchange.

A total of 5 Panamanian referees will initially participate next January in the National Series of Cuba; later on, in July, another group will be part of refereeing the Sub-23 tournament.

General Manager of FEDEBEIS, Aníbal Reluz, said that the exchange agreement also commits Cuban refereeing in the coming national championships whose talks are still being held to see if they would participate in the Juvenile or the Major category.

The announcement was made public during the culmination of the Seminar for the Implementation of New Technological Methods and the Upgrade of New Rules in Baseball Refereeing, which lasted a week and was attended by international instructors from Cuba and Venezuela.

Luis Daniel Del Risco and Norge Hernández, from Cuba; Miguel Hernández, from Venezuela; and Aníbal Reluz González, from Panama; trained more than 60 national referees to get better participation in the National Championships that begins next January 3rd, with the tournament of Juvenile Category.

The President of the College of Baseball Referees of Panama (COABP), Jorge Núñez, expressed the seminar was a big success thanks to the support received on behalf of the Federation which hosted the seminar.

Those 'men in blue', besides receiving lectures regarding the new baseball rules and their application, could also get important information on the handling of instantaneous repetition, which will be used in the Final and Semifinal, of the Championship for the 2016 season.

The General Manager of FEDEBEIS assured that this initiative represents the beginning of activities that will be held jointly with the College of Referees, and said the president of the Federation is interested in training the current referees, as well as giving the opportunity to youngsters interested in this profession', highlighted Mr. Reluz.

This is the first time that a group of Panamanian referees will participate directly in the Cuban Baseball National Series, one of the most important of the American continent.

Judo

The male judo team of Cuba is putting the final touches on their training to participate in the Grand Slam of Tokyo, Japan, from December 4th-6th, said Uvelino Moreno, the Cuban judo team's doctor on Monday.

After they competed in the Grand Prix of Quindao (China) and Jeju (South Korea), the Cuban team joined other judokas, such as Yandry Torres (60 kilograms) and Carlos Tondike (66) to train at the Japanese University of Ryutzu Keizai, Moreno told reporters.

Justo Noda, head coach of the Cuban team, arrived in Japan last Sunday, together with Magdiel Estrada (73), Ivan Silva (81), Asley González (90), José Armenteros (100) and Alex Gracía (+100) to complete the team to train and compete.

The Asian tour will close with the Grand Slam of Tokyo, one of the tournaments that gives points for the world ranking and has 22 places among men and 14 among females in the face of the South American summer event in 2016.

The women's team of Cuba, which also participates in the Asian tour, continues with its training in South Korea to participate in the Japanese competition and under the direction of coaches Armando Padrón, head coach, and Ronaldo Veitía.

The team presents Maricet Espinosa (63 kilos), bronze medal in Qingdao, Idalis Ortiz (+78) and Dayaris Mestre (48) and ranked 5th step.

The selection is completed by Aliuska Ojeda (57) and Yalennis Castillo (78), and physiotherapist Joaquin Ferrer.

Motorcycling
The Cuban motorcycle race-driver José Carlos León won the last tournament of the Dominican Republic Motorcycling Championship, 600 cc Amateur category, run in the capital of that Caribbean nation.

José Carlos passed the finish line in both races to win the award at this stage. The first one was a very close race, but in the 2nd he dominated from beginning to end, sticking good advantage to his closest pursuer.

Ramón Lorenzo and Idelfonso Ortiz came in behind Leon. Meanwhile, in the overall standings of the year, Ramón Lorenzo, José Carlos, and Idelfonso Ortiz took the podium.

The Cuban, after missing the 1st race in March, was up in the next four, winning a 2nd and 3rd places, which earned him runner-up. Another Cuban contestant, Héctor Tapia, rookie in these events in the novice category, had a conservative performance, as he prepares for the upcoming 2016 Season.