Cuban arrows will hit bull's-eye in Medellin

Havana, June 24 (JIT) - Cuba will attend with its men's recurve archery team to the World Cup to be held in the Colombian city of Medellin from July 18 to 24.

The news was confirmed to JIT by the president of the Cuban Archery Federation, Tamara Jimenez, who mentioned Adrian Puentes, Hugo Franco and Javier Vega as the members of the team.

The latter will be a debutant in a main national team of the island and will occupy the space that for years belonged to Juan Carlos Stevens, who recently decided to end his successful career in this sport.

The selected trio is currently preparing in the province of Sancti Spíritus under the orders of Reiter Téllez. Meanwhile, at the usual headquarters of the Training School for High Performance Athletes (Esfaar) Giraldo Córdova Cardín, east of the capital, the women's recurve archers and Rayner Torres and Aismaris Breijo, compound archery specialists, are getting ready.

"They are going to be in Sancti Spíritus until July 11. We are taking advantage of certain conditions that have been provided to us and trying to get everyone in the best possible shape for the competition, and that in some way will also enhance the performance of this team, which is the one with the best possibilities for this Olympic cycle," commented Vladimir Quintas, head coach of the national team.

"The boys are doing very well, shooting with a very favorable performance and we are waiting to see how they perform in the Cup," explained the experienced coach.

The Cuban archery will have as its main commitment during the current year the qualifying competition for the Central American and Caribbean Games of San Salvador 2023.

That event will be held in the Dominican Republic in September and Cuba will be represented by the recurve archery teams of both sexes and the two individual representatives of the compound archery.

"The women's recurve and the boys of the compound that are in Havana are finishing the mesocycle of preparation according to a stage designed to arrive in optimal form to the qualifier in September," said Quintas.

The women's team should include without difficulties Elizabeth Rodriguez and Maydenia Sarduy, along with a third figure that, according to the performance shown, could be Liduvenis Sierra or Yailin Paredes.

"Liduveinis and Yailín are so far with a very even work. We will continue with the preparation as planned and by mid-July we should have the definition of the team's work," he said.

As for Rayner and Aismaris, it was learned that the work of adaptation to their new weapons is going at the expected pace and it is expected that they will get their individual tickets for the regional multisport event next year in San Salvador.