U23 Baseball

Beginning today and until August 28th, Ciego de Ávila province is one of the four locations of the U-23 Cuban Baseball Tournament, where, besides the hosts, will be the teams of Sancti Spiritus, Camagüey and Las Tunas.

To do this, the territory created all conditions in the municipal stadiums of Ciro Redondo, Venezuela and the capital city, covering morning and evening stops, said Lázara Zubiaurria, an official of the provincial Sports.

Participating provinces will be divided into 4 groups: In A will rival Matanzas, Pinar del Rio and Isla de la Juventud, and Artemisa; by B will discuss Cienfuegos, Havana, Villa Clara and Mayabeque; and the D will cover Holguin, Santiago de Cuba, Granma and Guantanamo.

The qualifying stage will have 8 laps with 24 games for each team and advance to another stage each key leaders and the best 2 second places in the lid, while the defining stage runs from September 10th-16th.

Rolando Basulto, a member of the National Commission of the discipline explained in the Technical Congress that the same rules that existing to limit pitcher's throwing of the National Series will be applied, but the parties that extend beyond the 9 entries will be defined according the so-called IBAF rules, but with its application from the 10th inning.

The defining stage runs from September 10th-16th, it was met at the Technical Meeting.

FIFA U-17

The Cuban soccer team, U-17 years-old, will face off Suriname 04 today in qualifying for the Caribbean Football Union (CFU, acronym in English) for the World Cup, Chile 2015.

This game, at Havana's Pedro Marrero stadium, is the closure of the qualifying group which also covered the already eliminated Dominican squad, which fell 0-4 to Cuba and 0-3 against Surinamese.

Following these results, today's duel is vital for both teams, as the winner will get the ticket to the final of the Caribbean, scheduled this year in Haiti, from which the CFU representatives to the final of the North, Central American and Caribbean (CONCACAF) will emerge.

The Cuban team, piloted by Guantanamo's athlete Fidel "Jiquí" Salazar, opened the event with a 4-0 win against the weak Dominican, with 2 goals from Cuban central defender and captain Carlos Borromeo, supported by 1 per capita from Yasiel Blanco and Yasniel González, while Surinamese also showed good skills and technique when browbeat 3-0 to Dominica.

Cuba has participated in 2 World Tops in this category: Scotland 1989 and Italy 1991, where it reached the 15th and 16th places, in that order.

Chess
Without finding out the expected winning path continued today the Cuban GM Isam Ortiz, after being defeated by the Paraguayan GM José Fernando Cuba during the 7th day at the Ibero-American Chess Championship.

The Spanish town of Linares has been very adverse for the monarch of the Caribbean nation, who, in spite of being placed 6th according to his 2592 Elo points in the pre-qualifying stage, he barely shows 4 units as result of 3 hits and 2 draws to suffer his 2nd straight loss on Monday with white pieces against a lesser opponent with only 2455 ELO, a result that sent him to the position 22nd of the event led by Paraguayan GM Axel Bachmann (2652) thanks to 6 points, said the www.chess-results.com specialized site.

Tomorrow, in the 8th and penultimate round, Isam will look for to win with white pieces against local IM, Sabrina Vega, who owns 2400 Elo.