Champion Andy Granda will have first 2023 test in Paris
Matanzas, January 4 (ACN)-- Cuban judoka Andy Granda, world champion in the over 100 kilograms (kg) division in Tashkent 2022, Uzbekistan, will have his first test of the new year in the Grand Slam of Paris, scheduled for next February, within a competitive calendar that also includes other events at global, continental and regional level.
In exclusive statements to the Cuban News Agency, the native of the municipality of Jovellanos, in the Cuban province of Matanzas, said that after successfully recovering from a shoulder injury he plans to attend the City of Lights in full sporting form.
After the Grand Slam, he will have to draw up a strategy to participate in the remaining tournaments until May, when he will have to defend the crown he won last October at the world championship in Doha, Qatar, said the most outstanding athlete of the sport in Cuba in the year that has just ended.
Granda, also recognized with the highest distinction at the provincial level, explained that 2023 will reserve for the months of June and October the Central American and Pan American Games, in El Salvador and Chile, respectively, two commitments of utmost importance in the individual order and for the delegation of the largest of the Antilles.
The entire Cuban judo team will give its last breath in order to bring medals to the country and, in addition, to fight for qualifying tickets for the summer event in Paris 2024, said the number three in the ranking of the discipline (+100 kg).
Regarding his Olympic aspirations, Granda assured that without a doubt this is the competition in which every athlete aspires to shine, the medal that everyone wants to win and if it is a gold medal much better, so he will try to achieve it next year at the age of 31.
World ace Andy Granda, a member of a golden generation of judoists in the province of Matanzas, which also includes Iván F. Silva and Magdiel Estrada, among others, has six Pan American medals in the sport and the crown in the continental championships in Lima, Peru, in 2019.
