Havana, May 14 (JIT) --The path to be taken by each of the Cubans was defined after the draw for the continental table tennis competition, which will distribute individual Olympic quotas in the Peruvian city of Lima.
The rules establish the formation of four direct elimination brackets - two for each sex - and their winners will access the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The first two will begin this Tuesday, after the usual ordering based on the current locations in the world ranking. .
Daniela Fonseca, with a guaranteed presence in the Olympic mixed doubles competition alongside Jorge Moisés Campos, will begin the route as a rival to the Colombian Cory Téllez. If she won that match, she would advance to the quarterfinals to face the Mexican Arantxa Cossio, “seeded” in that phase.
For the less experienced Estela Crespo, who appears in the other key, her start was agreed against the Trinidadian Rheann Chong. A victory would then allow her to cross balls with Yadira Silva, a Cuban representing Mexico, whom she defeated in the team semifinal duel of the Central Caribbean event in San Salvador 2023.
Among men, the path will also have several obstacles to overcome. Jorge Moisés begins his actions against the Venezuelan César Augusto Castillo and everything indicates that in his next match he would find the Chilean Nicolás Burgos, one of the best ranked on the continent.
Andy Pereira was freed in the first round of the other series and will wait for the winner between the Salvadoran Diego Orantes and the American Kanak Jha.
«The male is very difficult. There are 10 favorite players to opt for the four places. "Anything can happen, you just have to do it right," the president of the Cuban Table Tennis Federation, Bárbaro Oliva, acknowledged in conversation with JIT, after learning of the draw.
«In the women's game there are also complex paths and a lot will depend on how our girls play. "Here are the best in America, except the classified ones," he explained before referring to the level of the Asian women who represent Canada.
The winners in each key will secure the ticket to Paris 2024. Then a new draw will be held to form another two keys for each sex that will be defined by the owners of the remaining tickets.
Cuba so far has the tickets of Daniela and Jorge Moisés as a couple. Andy currently occupies seventh place in the ranking that will distribute another 15 individual places, so his inclusion in the French capital's competition in this way seems a matter of time.
However, the most experienced of the Cuban tennis players will try to ensure first in the Lima competition what should be his return to the events under the five rings, after attending those in London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016.
