La Cruz suffers unexpected setback

Paris, July 28 (JIT) - The second day of the boxing tournament of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games was marked today by an unexpected setback for Cuban Julio Cesar La Cruz (92 kg), double world champion and five-time world champion.

The success went 3-2 to Cuban Loremberto Alfonso, who represents Azerbaijan and arrived here with bronze medals in Tokyo 2020 and a gold and a silver medals in the world championships.

Julio came out ahead 4-1, and although in the intermediate act the officials' decision was 3-2 in favor of his opponent, he kept an overall advantage of 2-1, given the prevailing equality in the other pair of ballots.

The closing was not enough to avoid another 3-2 for Loremberto and the outcome caused La Cruz unexpected elimination, followed by conflicting opinions on the evaluators' decision and numerous messages of support.

Among the first, that of Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, from his X account.

"Get up, champion! In sport as in life you win and you lose. Much glory you have given to #Cuba: 2 Olympic and 5 world titles. Get well soon and continue to support your teammates and the rest of the delegation. A hug, captain!", he wrote.