Volleyball
Cuba defeated Dominican Republic in 4 sets (25-14, 20-25, 25-17, 25-14) of an anticipated battle at the NORCECA Men's World Championship Qualification Tournament Pool P on Friday, the penultimate day of actions.
While many expected a sudden death duel, the home team put a lot of pressure in the 1st and 3rd sets against a dangerous rival to secure the victory in a match where the visitors used their back up players in the 4th set as both teams clashed the next day. Cuba beat the Dominican Republic in the decisive contest on Saturday for the ticket to Poland 2014.
In Friday's match, four Cuban players scored in double digits led by Rolando Cepeda with 16 points, followed by Javier Jimenez and David Fiel with 12 apiece and Osmany Uriarte who contributed 11, while for the Dominican side, star players Jose Cáceres and Elvis Contreras finished with 19 and 12 points, respectively.
"It was a tough match because Dominican Republic is an experienced team with outstanding players, " Cuba's coach Rodolfo Sánchez said.
"We made many errors in the serves and attack," Dominican Republic's coach José Álvarez Cutiño said.
In the other match, Barbados claimed its 1st victory by defeating Suriname in 3 sets (25-22, 25-18, 25-16).
The winners were more effective with their serves and attacks with the veteran player Shawn Simpson leading the offense with 12 points, which keep him among the top scorers of the event. Kyle Browne added 9 points, in the victory.
Zenafio Breinburg topped Suriname with 11 points and Keven Sporkslede contributed with 8 points.
Athletics
With the records set by Sahily Diago in the 800 meters and the pole vaulter Yarisley Silva, the last day of the Barrientos Memorial Athletics match at the Pan-American Stadium in Havana came to a close.
Diago, 18, was the main figure at the event, conquering a time of 1:57.74 on Sunday, a historic record for the Barrientos, where the previous record (1:58.77) had been achieved by world champion and Olympic medalist Ana Fidelia Quirot in 1997.
"The goal was to reduce time. I am not an athlete with many strategies. I go for a run and that is all," Diago, who is one of the strong candidates to win at the upcoming U-20 World Championship, told reporters after finishing the race.
Meanwhile, Silva introduced a new record for the event with a jump of 4.60 meters, but was not satisfied, because she failed 3 times at 4.75, facing a strong headwind.
In the men's 800 meters, Jorge Liranzo repeated the story of the last Cuba's Cup, and surpassed Pan-American monarch Andy Gonzalez by a few hundredths of a second.
Canoeing
Cuban canoeists Sergey Rolexis Torres and Baez got the bronze medal in the tandem (C-2), 200 meters in the 3rd stage of the 2014 Canoe Sprint World Cup, based in Szeged, Hungary, attended by more than 350 canoeists and kayakers from 88 countries.
Torres and Baez ended in 3rd place in the A final with a time of 37.691 sec., trial won by German Stefan Holtz and Robert Nuck (37,175).
The Cuban duo also competed Sunday in the A final of the 500 meters, but finished in 6th place.
On this day also rowed for Cuba, Juan Carlos Bulnes, who finished 2nd in the B final, single-seater canoe (C-1) to 500 meters, to close on the 11th place overall.
For Cubans, this was their debut in World Cup stages this year, as they did not attend the events of Milan, Italy, and Racice, in Czech Republic.
The Cubans attended this World Cup to adjust their preparation for the Central American and Caribbean Games to be held next November in Veracruz, Mexico, where the islanders aspire to be located in the 1st place by countries.
Cuba did not attend the previous event held at Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, in 2010, due to the lack of security for its delegation and now its main rival will be the local canoeists, who won 6 gold, 5 silver and 1 bronze medals.
