Havana, January 22 (JIT).- Cuban shooters are preparing to participate in two qualifying tournaments for the Asunción 2025 Junior Pan American Games in Paraguay.

A team made up of 13 athletes and three coaches is working to face these decisive competitions, the first of which will be the rifle and pistol qualifier that will be held in the Paraguayan capital between February 27 and March 6.

According to the list confirmed by the national commission, the Sancti Spiritus natives Paula Heydi Yanes and Ormide Batista will compete for Cuba in the rifle category; Lourdes Karina Medero, Jonathan González and Jean Pedro Hodelín from Havana and Erisnelki Cruz from Guantanamo, led by coach Maykel Guerra.

The group of gunfighters is made up of Adianet Samela López and Ernesto José González, from Las Tunas; Melani Abreu, from Cienfuegos; María Fernanda Pérez from Villa Clara, Milton Enrique Santiesteban from Camagüey and Jaddier Duque from Pinar del Río, under the orders of Juan Francisco Pérez.

The organizers announced more than 70 competitors, who will compete in the 10-meter air rifle and pistol events in the female, male and mixed categories.

17 tickets will be given out for each of the individual rifle and pistol events, for a total of 68 places.

After this tournament, the shotgun qualifier will take place, with headquarters in Bridgetown, Barbados, from March 7 to 17.

The competition will bring together 32 shooters from the continent, who will seek to win one of the 28 tickets in dispute, seven for each individual event in skeet and trap for men and women.

Cuba will be represented on Barbadian territory by Miguel Alejandro Hernández from Havana, who specializes in shotgun skeet and is trained by Daniel Hernández.

«Our main objective in these events is to classify two athletes per weapon and sex. In the case of shotgun shooting, we hope that the boy can access one of the places. For this, both the nine members of the national team chosen, as well as the four shooters who were selected directly from their respective provinces, are preparing themselves», confirmed Julio Fidel Hernández Díaz, national shooting methodologist, to JIT.

The list of those classified in sport shooting for the Junior Pan American Games in its second edition will be announced on March 28.