Six Cuban taekwondocas qualify for Santiago 2023 Games

Havana, March 24 (RHC)-- Six Cuban taekwondocas won quotas today for the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, during the closing day of the qualifying tournament held at the Olympic Park in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

"I consider the overall performance to be good. It could have been seven, as Tamara Robles (57 kg) was winning her bout when she got injured," Ivan Fernandez Quiros, president of the Cuban Taekwondo Federation, told JIT.

"We will fight for a direct place for that division because she is a Pan American runner-up. We will make the proposal to the technical committee of the Pan American Taekwondo Union (Patu)," he explained.

"We also got the ticket in both genders in TK3 (team sparring), a modality that will be premiered in the Central Caribbean Games of San Salvador 2023 and Santiago 2023", said the seventh Dan and national commissioner of this sport.

The bronze medalist at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Rafael Alba Castillo (+80 kg), Ormis Daniel Lagar Videaux (68 kg) and Yunier Alexis Noa Quintosa (80 kg) won the ticket for Cuba. Young Akely Matos Rubán could not fulfill his dream of competing in the southern nation.

For the girls, Dalila Oneida Villamil Sardiña (49 kg), Arlettys de la Caridad Acosta Herrera (67 kg) and Elianet María Crespo Hernández (+73 kg) guaranteed the pass.

They join freestyle poomseístas Pedro Pablo Escalona Guerra and Tania Indira Delgado Salfrán, and parataekwondocas Idalianna Quintero Acevedo (65 kg) and Dayán Sosa Pérez (+80 kg).

The Cubans will participate this weekend, also at the Olympic Park, in the Pan-Am Series II in Rio de Janeiro.