Cuba in Veracruz 2014
Cuba reached 22 gold medals in the Central-American and Caribbean Games in Veracruz, Mexico, with the victory of the Cuban women's air pistol team, at the distance of 10 meters (32.8 feet).
The team formed by Laina Perez, Sheyla Eugenia Gonzalez and Claudia Hernandez gave Cuba its 8th gold medal in shooting, with a total of 1,108 points. The Cuban team defeated Mexico's, while the bronze medal went to Venezuela's representatives who finished with 1,106 points.
Meanwhile, the duo Lisandra Guerra and Marlies Mejías won Cuba's first cycling gold medal by dominating the women's team sprint event in 33.624 seconds, followed by Mexicans Daniela Gaxiola and Frany Fong (34.124), and Venezuelans Daniela Larreal and Marynes Prada (34.228) in 3rd place.
In other results, young cyclist Arlenis Sierra won a bronze medal in the women's scratch, surpassed by Venezuelan Angie González and Mexican Lizbeth Salazar; however, the quartet of Jans Carlos Arias, Arnold Alcolea, Yennier López and Pedro Portuondo finished 4th in the men's scratch, won by Colombians Daniel Ríos, Weimer Roldán, Eduardo Estrada and Juan Arango with a time of 4:06.32 minutes to smash the previous record of 4:23.199 set by the team in Mayagüez 2010.
Baseball in Veracruz 2014
Cuba achieved its 2nd victory in the baseball tournament of Veracruz 2014 Central-American and Caribbean Games by beating Mexico 10-1 to secure a berth in the semifinals.
The ace pitcher Freddy Asiel Alvarez won the match when allowing only 3 hits and 1 clean in 5 innings, and was supported by solid reliefs of Vladimir Gutierrez, Yaisel Sierra and Hector Manuel Mendoza, while Jesus Rodriguez took the loss.
Victor Mesa's pupils batted 17 hits, with special highlight by 2nd baseman Yulieski Gourriel, who hit 3 for 6 with 5 RBIs, as well as the outfielder Alfredo Despaigne, 3 for 4, with a homer and 3 RBIs, but shortstop Dainer Moreira also shone offensively by hitting 4 for 4 with 3 runs, while outfielder Alexei Bell hit 2 for 3, with 1 RBI and a run scored.
In other results on Monday, Nicaragua beat Panama 7-5, and the defending champion the Dominican Republic knocked out Venezuela by a score of 12 to 2. Cuba now leads Group A with perfect performance of 2 wins and no losses, and will try to defeat today the weak squad of Guatemala (0-2) to secure the first seat of the pool, while Mexico (1-1) and Puerto Rico (1-1) will fight for the other semifinal ticket.
In Group B, the already eliminated Panama (0-2) will rival Venezuelans (1-1) who need to win to force a 3-way tie at the top with the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua, both with positive balance of 2-1.
The top two teams from each group will qualify to semifinals on Thursday, whose winners will play for the title a day later to close a discipline that is based at the Beto Avila Stadium, in Veracruz.
World Chess C'ship
Belying expectations of chess fans across the world for a positive result, Norwegian world chess champion Magnus Carlsen and title challenger Viswanathan Anand decided on Tuesday to split points in 41 moves in the 8th round of their title match underway in Russia.
Playing in white, Anand's game progressed to what is technically called Queen's Gambit Declined but on the 23rd move, the queens got exchanged till the 41st move where both players finally signed their peace. Anand, who is himself a 5-time world champion before he lost the title to Carlsen, was not much concerned.
At the end of this round, Carlsen leads the 12th round match with 4.5 points to Anand's 3.5 points. The match would resume on Thursday after a day of rest.
