Titan Tropic

Spain's José Luis Carrasco won the 3rd stage of the Titan Tropic Cuba, Mountain Bike category disputed between the wooded hills of Viñales and the town of Tres Cruces de Río, in the western province of Pinar del Río.

However, Colombian Diego Tamayo held the lead in the overall standings after the 119 km route. --the most extensive of the lid-- that allowed the caravan split in several platoons.

The 1st of them covered the 10 best riders, such as the Spaniards Francisco Javier Salamero and Roberto Bou and Cuban José Mojica finally owner of the 5th place.

For groups, the Cuban national team faced the Gaes 3 team and classified 3 of the 4 members in the top 8, while the Spanish Mireia Barbera and local Olga Echenique were imposed among the ladies.

This Wednesday the 4th and penultimate day of competition covering 73 km. is disputed along the diverse landscape and passages from Pinar del Rio municipality of Viñales, UNESCO Cultural Heritage since 1999.

Chess
Cuban GM Lázaro Bruzón, 2666 ELO, leads the 6 players over 2600 points of ELO who have confirmed their presence at the XXVII Carlos Torre Repetto Tournament in Memoriam, to be held from 17th-21st this month at the Grand Museum of Maya World, in Mexico.

Bruzón, champion of this event on 3 occasions, 2005, 2013 and 2014, will be joined by another 5 players rated higher than 2600: Cuban Yunieski Quesada (2627), monarch of this fight in 2003, the Russian Alexey Dreev (2644) The Peruvian Emilio Córdova (2611), who won in 2010, and the Dutch Sergei Tiviakov (2610) and Erwin L'Ami (2628).

"Definitely this is one of the strongest tournaments in open category," said Aussín Javier Herrera, director of the tournament, which was officially presented at a press conference on Tuesday.

The Mexican fair, which has been won 8 times by Cuban chess players, will be played at 9 rounds in just 5 days, so double round on December 17th-20th will be played.

Football
The Cuban soccer team gave in Nicaragua 5-0 in the 1st of 4 friendly caps corresponding to its preparatory tour for Nicaragua and Honduras.

For these duels, Cuba doesn't have the presence of its defense Arturo Diz Pe, the attacker Arichel Hernández, and goalkeeper Sandy Sánchez, while the flying Andy Baquero and Maikel Reyes, who perform a pre-season training with the Mexican Cruz Azul team, didn't go either.

In the clash against Nicaragua on Tuesday, the Cuban team was slow in defense and with no initiatives, but their captain Juan Barrera who took perfect penalty kick to min. 19. Now Cuba will face Nicaragua on Friday at the Independence Stadium, in the northern province of Estelí.

In the latest FIFA rankings, released earlier this month, Cuba ranks 91st in front of Nicaragua, which shows its best-ever position in the list, with an increase of 8 steps compared to last November.

The selection directed by Costa Rican coach Henri Duarte, which came close to passing the 3rd qualifying round of CONCACAF toward the Russian-2018 World Top, is now the 3rd best in Central America.

Handball
Cuba suffered its 3rd consecutive defeat now 38 goals for 23 against Angola and when only 2 remaining dates for the completion of the preliminary round Group B, it is virtually eliminated from the World Handball Championship for ladies, which is hosted by Denmark till next December 20th.

Cubans Aylin Martinez and Lisandra Lusson commanded the offensive with 4 goals each, but fired the day with no points and adverse balance of 75-104 in terms of goals for and against.

In other results of this key, the Netherlands and Switzerland are tied at 28 and completed 2 hits, 1 draw and 5 points, followed by Poland with 4, while Denmark and Russia are unbeatable in Groups A and D, respectively, and the top of C It is shared by defending champion Brazil and France.