Sports Festival

Cuba now leads the overall medal standing of the Pan-American Sports Festival, after 6 competitive days of meets in Mexico with 3600 athletes from 40 countries.

The Island exhibits this Friday a balance of 11 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze medals, which also puts it at the top of the Table with 70.8% efficiency, as out of 24 Caribbean participants, 17 have been awarded medals.

Volleyball

The men's volleyball team of Cuba will face Puerto Rico today in 1 of 2 semifinal matches of the U-19 Tournament of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean (NORCECA), which takes place in the U.S. city of Tulsa.

Boxing

The cruiser Frank Sanchez won for the second time and became the 1st Cuban finalist boxer at the Pan-American Sports Festival, where his teammate, light welter Jorge Moirán, gave in.

Sanchez, Youth World holder in 2010, surpassed the difficult obstacle to dispose of Colombian Julio Deivis, monarch of America last year and winner of ODESUR Games last March.

The Cuban, crowned at the recent Córdova Cardin International Tournament in Havana, will contend the gold on Sunday against local Brandon Olvera.

The finalists in the remaining categories will be defined this Friday, where Cuba will show its welterweight Reinier Palacios, bronze medal at Playa Giron International Tournament, as rival of Mexican Malvin Cabrera.

The Island also enrolled the super complete Yoandry Maceo, but he fell 0-3 on the opening day at the hands of American Cam Awesome.

Wrestling

Cuban wrestlers Alejandro Valdés (65 kg), Ismael Cortina (97) and Reinieris Salas (86) were crowned and gave Pan-American berths to Cuba at the Pan-American Sport Festival hosted by the Edel Ojeda Valdés Gymnasium.

However, the celebration of the Island was cut with the setbacks of Alfredo Cisneros (57) and Olympic bronze Liván López (74), who closed with silver, Cuban coach Julio Mendieta said.

Actions in this style gathered 108 participants and were led by the U.S., conqueror of 4 of the 8 possible crowns.

Adding what happened in this and Greco tournaments and among female, Cuba completed 9 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze medals, plus 9 tickets to the multi-sport American meeting next September.

Motocross

Creating a motocross track racing exhibition located in the area surrounding the Augusto César Sandino Baseball Stadium, is one of the newest sports and leisure options this summer in Villa Clara.

The construction of the facility, 2nd of its kind in the city, was carried out as part of the efforts in Cuba to promote the practice of mass sports, while recovering an area in disuse for several years.

This track is part of the Sandino Recreational Sports Complex, where areas of mountain biking, karting, bio-healthy gym, and basketball, volleyball, badminton and mini football rooms will be built before the end of the summer, plus points of culinary offers, lighting of the surrounding areas and enabling a platform for dance therapy and aerobic exercises in order to satisfy the varied preferences of the population, where the direction of the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (INDER) in Santa Clara, will assume the professional and technical supply, said Alejandro Truñó, its director.