Cuban Baseball Series 2015-2016

50 percent of players chosen to join the qualified teams for the second phase of the Cuban Baseball Series starting on December 15th are pitchers.

The coaches' decision to pick more pitchers points to the general pitching weakness of teams in the first phase of the championship.

From the total amount of 40 ball players, five for each team, half of them are pitchers, revealing the need to work more on this area, although teams' production in the first round was 3,87 clean runs in nine innings of a game.

The selection was better than previous years and coaches are more focused to win a place in the playoffs final four in April 2016.

New Concussion Test Could Be A Medical Breakthrough

Lexington, Massachusetts's medical company Quanterix, a developer of ground-breaking tools in high definition diagnostics, says they're developing machines that will identify a concussion in less than one hour using a blood test.

Athletes who play contact sports know there are risks. Some are obvious, but the invisible injury of a concussion can be hard to detect.

It’s difficult to know on the sidelines if a player has a concussion, and developers believe a definitive test would change things tremendously for everyone involved.

The brain is the only organ in the body that doesn't have a blood test to see if something is wrong...

Until now.

“This feels like science fiction when you’re thinking about the level of detection that you’re doing in the blood”, Quanterix CEO Kevin Hrusovsky says; explaining the work being done at his firm’s lab.

“What happens when you have a concussion” he says, “is the brain and some of the cells and neurons release some proteins that are evident in the cerebral spinal fluid.”

Some of that fluid leaks into the blood at a minute level, and Quanterix technology can pull information from it.

Brain injury researchers are encouraged that this test could help save lives.

Scientists have yet to get the test out of the lab and available for use on the sidelines. They are hoping to have a portable test ready for use by 2017.

Cycling : Titan Tropic

Colombian cycling rider Diego Tamayo won the scepter of the first edition of the Titan Tropic Cuba, which ended Thursday with the running of the fifth stage, between the towns of Viñales and Cayo Jutias, west of Havana.

Tamayo, a member of the GAES team, dominated the overall standings, with a record of 15 hours, 20 minutes and 22 seconds, ahead of Spanish Ibon Zugasti, who ended second, and Roberto Bou third.

"I am happy and proud to have been able to honor this race with a victory," said the champion.

In the day, the Colombian rider finished second in the fifth stage with the same time of the winner of the stage, Bou, who crossed the finish line after running for 2: 33.51 hours.

Among women Cuban Olga Echenique was crowned winner of the tournament as Portuguese Filomena Gomes ended second and the Spanish Mireia Barbera came third.

Prensa Latina Poll

Colombian El Dia news agency selected local triple jumper Catherine Ibarguen for its vote for Best Female Athlete of the Year, and now Ibarguen is the leader of the list of candidates for the category award, at the Prensa Latina sports poll to choose the best athletes of the year 2015.

During 2015, Ibarguen increased the number of consecutive victories since 2012 to 29. She conquered the gold medal at the Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada, and the World Championship in Beijing (China), besides winning the Diamond League.

With the vote by El Dia, Ibraguen, 31 years old, accumulates 14 votes in favor, one more than Cuban pole vaulter Yarelis Silva, who has 13 now.

The men's classification list is led by Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, world and Olympic champion in 100 and 200 flat meters, with 27 votes, followed by famous pro soccer player Lionel Messi, second, with 12.