Baseball

Industriales decimated the hopes of Artemisa to give it an almost fatal blow to its aspirations for the playoffs at the 53rd Cuban Baseball Championship, after winning the game by 6-5 in extra innings.

Yuniesky Gourriel led Industriales' success with a timely hit during the 10th episode that propelled Rayko Olivares, before the defeated pitcher José Ángel García.

The eldest of the Gourriel's brothers led the offensive of Industriales to gave 6-3 with 3 RBIs, seconded by designated Lisbán Correa with 1 home run and 3 RBIs, while reliever Yohandry Portal filed his 7th win.

With this negative result, Los Cazadores of Artemisa moved away 5 games from the Classification Zone, while the winners tied for 3rd seat with Pinar del Río, which succumbed by 6-2 facing the current monarch of Villa Clara.

Ismel Jiménez added his 7th victory to spread 6 hits and 2 cleans in 8 innings, while failure corresponded to Erlis Casanova.

The veteran 1st baseman Ariel Borrero, the 2nd baseman Andy Sarduy and outfielder Leandro Turiño led the winning drive with 2 RBIs per capita.

Meanwhile, Matanzas continued its unstoppable march towards the playoffs 12-5 to overcome Isla de la Juventud to be consolidated on the top of the Table.

Eriel Sanchez drove in 3 runs and José Miguel Fernández hit 3-2 with 2 RBIs as the leading force for the current sub-runners, while Juan Carlos Viera filed his 6th win with perfect relay of 2 entries and 2 thirds.

Finally, Holguín remained on the hunt for the Classification Zone by beating 6-4 to battered Santiago de Cuba with offensive role for the winning outfielder Guillermo Avilés, with 1 home run and 3 RBIs.

Thus, only 16 days to run, Matanzas commands with 45 and 26, followed by Villa Clara (43-28), Industriales and Pinar del Rio tied with (42-29), then Holguin (39-32), Artemisa (37-34), Isla de la Juventud (34-37) and closes it Santiago de Cuba (31-40).

 Athletics

The star Cuban athlete Javier Sotomayor celebrates 25 years of still being the holder of the world record in high jump indoors, obtained at the world top celebrated in Budapest, Hungary, where he registered 2.43 meters.

Badminton

Badminton players from 11 countries confirmed their presence at the Giraldilla of Havana International Tournament, scheduled from March 26th to 30th.

According to Miguel Diaz, president of the Cuban Badminton Federation, athletes from Argentina, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Guatemala, Italy, Mexico, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Trinidad and Tobago, Peru and the United States will take part.

Diaz said that 52 foreign competitors were registered, besides the 19 Cuban participants.
He also reminded that the event has the category of International Series and for that reason it will give 2,500 points for the world ranking to the winners of each category.

At present, members of the Cuban team are training in Trinidad and Tobago with a view to the traditional event.

Diaz said that preparation will be very helpful in order to improve the competitive level of the eight short-listed, four men and equal number of women.
He added the main figure of this sport in Cuba, Osleni Guerrero, winner of seven medals last season, will be looking to defend the title in the 15th edition of Giraldilla.