Havana, September 17 (JIT)-- Cuba won four medals on the first day of the Calgary 2023 Pan American and Oceania Judo Championships.
One silver medal, three bronze medals and two seventh places were won by the six judoists who took to the tatami. There was no representation in the 57 kg.
Orlando Polanco (66 kg), deserving of the subtitle, defeated Iván Gómez of Argentina in the first round with a lightning ippon in just 13 seconds of combat. He then defeated Brazil's William Lima in the quarterfinals and Ecuador's Lenin Preciado in the semifinals, in both cases by waza-ari. He was unable to defeat local Julien Frascadore in the final, as he was penalized with three shidos.
A meritorious performance was given by 19-year-old Jonathan Charón in the 60 kg, who won one of the bronze medals. His first bout was very close against American David Terao. The decision came by hansoku-make on golden rule. The Cuban had also defeated him in the Varadero 2023 Pan American Judo Open.
In his second presentation he could not face the Australian Josue Kats, who is 148 places ahead of him in the International Judo Federation (IJF) ranking. That sent him to the repechage against Costa Rica's Sebastian Sancho, whom he defeated by ippon even though he is also ahead of him by more than 100 places in the ranking. He disputed the bronze medal and ended up winning it against Ecuadorian Juan Ayala, recent champion of the Panamerican Judo Open of Santiago 2023.
Magdiel Estrada (73 kg) also climbed to the third step of the podium. He beat two Canadians, Antonio Bouchardo (hansoku-make) and Arturo Margelidon (ippon) in the quarterfinals and semifinals, in that order. The bout for the medal was relatively comfortable against American Jacobo Yonezuka (ippon).
The remaining medal went to Maylín del Toro (63 kg), who started in the quarterfinals against Hannah Martin from the United States. In the semifinals, she got complicated with shidos until the hansoku-make, which deprived her of the final. She had to recover from a bad start in the repechage against the Colombian Cindy Mera. Then she won the metal with nothing less than ippon in the last second against the stellar Brazilian Ketleyn Quadros.
Two other Cuban women, Zamarit Gregorio (48 kg) and Yurisleidy Hernandez (52 kg), finished seventh. The second day of the competition will feature Idelannis Gómez (70 kg), Lianet Cardona (78 kg), the star Idalys Ortiz (+78 kg), Maikel Mkencie (81 kg), Iván Silva (90 kg), Liester Cardona (100 kg) and world champion Andy Granda (+100 kg).
Brazil dominates the competition's medal tally with three titles, followed by Canada with two and Australia and Chile with one. Cuba is in sixth place behind Mexico, which has three silver medals and one bronze medal. The championship features 159 athletes of 23 nationalities.
