Because playing is a right of children and a human need throughout life, Cuba will make the celebration of May 28th, the International Game Day, a giant party and for all, an opportunity to learn and grow together, embracing children, adolescents, young and adults.
Cuba-USA Regatta
After 6 days of meetings, sports competitions and sailings, the U.S. Havana Challenge Regatta concludes today with its return to Key West, while Cubans are preparing to receive another race from the north.
The 20 sailboats with 100 American citizens return today to their country, and already announced the arrival of another regatta from that country, in this case from Sarasota, Florida, as well as the arrival tomorrow of grandchildren of novelist Ernest Hemingway.
The Havana Challenge Regatta arrived in Havana on May 16th on a journey that took them to the Marina Hemingway Yacht Club in west Havana, where most of the events of this nature take place.
The 65th Ernest Hemingway International Marlin Fishing Tournament, one of the oldest events of this kind worldwide, will be held at that site, and about 10 U.S. sailboats are already registered, using the flexibilities of the ties between Washington and Havana, since December 17th last year.
Havana Challenge Regatta represented the first race of its kind in 15 years, because it was previously suspended due to U.S. measures against Cuba.
During the days the U.S. sailboats stayed in Cuba, a competition of the Hobie Cats 16 and an exhibition along Havana's Malecon coastline up to the harbor entrance to the Cuban capital, were carried out.
Premier12™ Global Baseball Tournament
Opening round groups for the first-ever Premier12 global baseball tournament, which unites the 12 highest-ranked countries of the WBSC Baseball World Rankings, were among a series of major announcements led by WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari at a press conference in the South Korean capital on Wednesday.
In the day's most anticipated news surrounding the new Premier12 --which will be staged in Japan and Taiwan from November 8th-21st-- the two groups for the event's Opening Round were revealed:
Group A: Co-host/World No. 4 Chinese Taipei, No. 3 Cuba, No. 5 Netherlands, No. 7 Canada, No. 9 Puerto Rico and No. 11 Italy
Group B: Co-host/World No. 1 Japan, No. 2 United States, No. 6 Dominican Republic, No. 8 South Korea, No. 10 Venezuela and No. 12 Mexico.
The top 4 nations from each group surviving the Opening Round clash will advance to the quarterfinal knockout stage before the Premier12 shifts from Taiwan to Japan's iconic Tokyo Dome for the semi-finals and finals.
Continuing the announcements, the first 2 contests that will kick off action at the 2015 Premier12 unveiled that Group A will cover Chinese Taipei and Netherlands, the 2011 Baseball World Cup champions, at Taichung's Intercontinental Stadium on November 9th.
The inaugural Premier12 is being co-hosted by Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) -- the 2nd highest-attended major sports league in the world in 2014 (approx. 23 million)-- and the Chinese Taipei Baseball Association.
Chess
The GMs Fabiano Caruana, Peter Svidler and Sergey Karjakin won their respective games in the 6th round of the FIDE Grand Prix in Khanty-Mansiysk to occupy the top spots on the cross table.
Sergey Karjakin added another victory after the rest day, inflicting loss to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, the French Grandmaster’s 3rd in a row while Peter Svidler defeated Anish Giri after a long endgame, but most likely black missed better moves on several occasions.
Finally, in the longest game of the day, Fabiano Caruana scored a very important victory against Alexander Grischuk as the ending was extremely complicated and therefore abounding with errors, but Sasha was the last to blink.
The remaining 3 games were draws. Thus, Fabiano Caruana maintains the lead with 4,5/6 points, while Sergey Karjakin and Peter Svidler follow half a point behind.
2015 World Volleyball League
Canada beat Cuba 3-0 (26-24, 25-19, 25-21) in front of 3500 of their hometown fans for the 2nd successive night to open its 2015 World Volleyball League campaign on a positive note.
On Saturday night, Canada won 3-0 (25-20, 25-19, 26-24) where Gavin Schmitt again led scoring, this time with 19 points, while Cuba's captain Rolando Cepeda Abreu was the top scorer for the visitors with 14.
The teams will face each other again from May 21st to 23rd in Detroit in the hopes of qualifying for the World Cup. Canada will continue with home World League stops in Halifax and Summerside.
