Baseball
Ciego de Avila reached its 7th consecutive victory to overcome Guantánamo 6-4 to complete the bilateral sweep sub-series and consolidate the team at the top of the 55th Cuban Baseball Championship.

In a cap held at the José Ramón Cepero stadium, Ciego de Avila's Los Tigres guaranteed success with a bunch of 3 runs in the 10th inning with the 2nd win for Yadir Rabbi and offensive highlight of Yoelvis Fiss with 1 homer and 3 trailers.

Industriales also passed the broom to Artemisa and kept chasing the current monarchs to knock them out by a score of 12-2 with Stayler Hernandez' and Rudy Reyes' couple of homers, who propelled 4 and 3, respectively.

Another sweep was given by the current runner-up Isla de la Juventud to win for the 3rd consecutive time to the battered and decreased Matanzas, this time 7-6, in offensive led by Rigoberto Gomez, 4-4, with 2 doubles and 2 RBIs for the winners.

Parallel, Holguin beat 8-6 to Camagüey, Villa Clara won 3-2 to Pinar del Rio, Mayabeque 11-1 to Sancti Spiritus, Santiago de Cuba 6-5 to Cienfuegos, and Granma 8-0 to Las Tunas.

Now Ciego de Avila leads with 8-2, followed by Industriales (7-2), Pinar del Río and Granma (6-3), Sancti Spiritus, Las Tunas, Villa Clara and Santiago de Cuba (5-4), Isla de la Juventud (5-5), Holguin, Cienfuegos, Guantanamo (4-5), Matanzas, Mayabeque (3-6), Artemisa (2-7), and Camagüey (1-8).

Boxing
Only 3 Cubans will climb the podium in the semifinals of the World Boxing Championship for Cadets (15-16 years old category) which is being held in the Russian city of St. Petersburg.

Dainier Peró (80 kg), Alexei Rodríguez (54) and Edel Acosta (60) are the students of Professor Humberto Horta to seek their place in the discussion of the title.

Volleyball

Cuba will face Brazil tomorrow, Friday, in the first round of group C in the U-21 Men's World Volleyball Championship, event that will bring together 16 teams in several Mexican cities.

According to the website of the event, the Cubans will debut against Brazilians to then face the Chinese and Iranian teams on Saturday and Sunday, with a stage in Mexicali, the city which will also host Group D made up by France, Italy, Japan and Slovenia.

Canada, Egypt, Mexico and Turkey (A) and Argentina, Poland, Russia and the United States (B) will play in Tijuana while the opening day program is completed with the matches Turkey-Canada, Russia-Poland and Italy-Slovenia.

The first 2 teams of each group will form the Pools E and F to the next phase, and the leader of each one will advance directly to the semifinals.

The 2nd preliminary round will begin on day 12th, and the 3rd and final on 19th, as the medal discussion will be on September 21st.

Sports-cooperation
Thakaidzwa Doran, Director General of the Sports Development Foundation of Curacao, is visiting the Cuban capital to increase sports exchanges between Cuba and the Caribbean island.

Gladys Bequer, vice president of the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (INDER), received the distinguished guest at the Jose Marti International Airport, where they discussed the interest of bilateral cooperation.

This visit is focused on various aspects of cooperation in which the Prime Minister of Curacao, Ivar Astes, showed interest during his stay in Cuba last July while attending a working meeting with Bequer.

Therefore the maximum sports official said on his arrival being interested in the Cuban experience, especially in the high performance athletes and the Community Social Project of Physical Activity for Life as well as physical education in schools to foster it in their teaching institutions, the visitor said.

Bequer confirmed the willingness of the Cuban government and its sports movement to increase cooperation in this field.

The first bilateral Memorandum of Understanding in the field of sports was signed on May 27th, 1999, and tomorrow, Friday, a cooperation agreement between the local INDER and the Foundation for Sport Development of Curacao will be signed, as the culmination of the Thakaidwa Doran visit to Havana.

During his stay in Cuba, Doran also plans to have meetings with officials of INDER, tour the national volleyball, soccer and gymnastics schools, plus visiting the Anti-Doping Control Laboratory, among other activities.

As in some other Caribbean islands, baseball is one of the most popular sports in Curacao, with participation in World Classics, and in the case of football, Curacao is a full member of FIFA.