Havana, April 15 (ACN) - Archer Hugo Franco finished in fourth place in the Pan American Archery Championship hosted by Medellin, Colombia, and achieved Cuba's best performance in that competition.
Franco came close to winning the bronze medal in the individual 70-meter recurve archery event on Sunday, which he was unable to achieve when he fell in a tie-breaking arrow to Jack Williams, 29th in the world ranking.
In the duel for the title, the Mexican Matías Grande won 6-4 against Jackson Mirich, from the United States; while among the women, another American, Casey Kaufhold, defeated Alejandra Valencia, from Mexico, 6-5, according to the official site of the event.
Previously, the pre-Olympic tournament for Paris 2024 was held in the same Colombian city, with two individual tickets and one team ticket at stake, in both sexes.
Although the Cubans made their best effort, they did not reach any of the available places for that summer event.
However, there were positive results such as this Wednesday's, with the Cuban men's team setting a national record with 1,976 points in the qualifying phase.
Then, in the elimination matches, Franco, Juan José Santiesteban and Javier Vega had the Peruvians as their first rivals, whom they dominated with a wide score of 6-0, but then lost 3-5 against the Mexicans.
Among the women, Larissa Pagan, Yailin Paredes and Maydenia Sarduy defeated El Salvador 6-2 in the first match, but then lost with the same score against the Brazilians to say goodbye to the Olympic quota.
In the end, both teams from the Caribbean nation took fifth place, in a match in which the Colombians and the Americans won the coveted tickets.
Finally, in the individual section, Canada's Kristine Esebua, Puerto Rico's Alondra Rivera, Argentina's Mario Jajarabilla and Nicholas D'Amour, from the British Virgin Islands, sealed their qualification to the Olympic Games under the five rings in the French capital.