Baseball
The Cuban Baseball Federation announced the arrival on Tuesday December 15th in Havana of a delegation comprising representatives of Major League Baseball of America and the Players Association of that organization.

The note points out that the visiting delegation is headed by Joe Torre, director of football operations of the league, and former player Dave Winfield, adviser to the union.

It also adds the details of the program and objectives of the stay will be discussed that same day at 3 pm local time, at a press conference at the Vedado Hall, in Havana's Hotel Nacional.

And from the National Series, we learned that the 40 players who will strengthen the 8 qualified teams for the 2nd stage of the 55th Cuban Baseball Classic were selected on Wednesday night during a special program on national television.

Each of the managers of the teams that will encourage the 2nd phase from next Tuesday, December 15th, could choose 5 players out of the 8 eliminated teams.

Titan Tropic Cuba

Despite having problems with her bike in the 4th stage at the Titan Tropic Cuba, local Olga Echenique retained the leader's jersey for the individual general classification for ladies, after entering the 2nd.

The 21 year old Cuban woman has the advantage of 19 min. and 31 sec. on the Spanish Mireia Barbera, when only remains one single day; however, among men there was also no change in the general individual classification, as the Colombian Diego Tamayo kept the leader's jersey, for the 2nd consecutive day.

In this case and in both times, the winner was the Spanish José Luis Carrasco, now escorted by Tamayo while the also Spanish Ibon Zugasti crossed in the 3rd position.

Cuba's best contestant on Wednesday was Álvaro Soca, who took the 8th place, followed by his teammate César Rodríguez in 9th spot, while José Mojica closed 11th.

On Thursday, the last stage of Titan Tropic Cuba, a path of 68 km between Viñales and Cayo Jutía will be run.

Handball
The Cuban female handball team did not access to the locker of victories in the World Championships for women that takes place in Denmark, after losing to Holland in the penultimate round of the qualifying round and removed from the lid.

The setback was by a wide marker, 23-45, which showed the tulip domain in every game parameter, where Lois Abbingh and Danick Snelder commanded the winning drive with 8 and 7 goals respectively, while again the Cubans Lisandra Lussón and Eyatne Rizo stood out for the losers with 7 points per capita, followed by Ayling Martinez with 3.

Cuba-Bolivia New Friendly Cooperation

Bolivian President Evo Morales met Cuban athlete and 800 flat meter two-time Olympic, and World Champion, Ana Fidelia Quirot, who will offer several conferences in Bolivia. "We invited Ana Fidelia, for becoming an inspiration for our athletes, we want her to inspire our competitors in future track and field competitions," said Tito Montaño, Bolivian Sports Minister to Prensa Latina.

Quirot, Best Female Athlete of the Year in 1989, will give several conferences for coaches and competitors.

She had silver medal in Atlanta-1996 and bronze in Barcelona-1992. In 1993, her legacy got bigger, after suffering a domestic accident, that produced several serious burns affecting her own body.

"I think the motivation in athletes is very important, especially coming from the experience of those who achieved many successes in sports and starred in one of the most important feats in history after suffering as serious as that accident," said Montaño.

Montano added that by example, the Quirot will greatly assist the Bolivian athletes find the right direction and needed to train more interest and motivation to be better every day.

Meanwhile, the largest Cuban runner of all time, expressed his gratitude for the reception and said that Bolivia has all the conditions and human capital to plan a motivational program and encourage them in sport.

"I think that conditions are ripe for that reason we are here, with greater willingness to help in any way possible," he told reporters the native of Palma Soriano, in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba.