Silver for Harser García in the Mare Nostrum Swimming Meet

Harser García won the silver medal in the 100m freestyle in the second meet of the Mare Nostrum that took place in Canet, France. The Mare Nostrum is a series of swimming meets with three meets around the Mediterranean Sea (in Canet, France, Barcelona, Spain and Monaco, Monaco) in June annually.

García, olympic finalist in London 2012 and runner-up in the Panamerican Games in Guadalajara 2011, finished the distance in the excellent time of 48.77 seconds and was only outdone by the olympic champion, the American Adrian Nathan (48,42s).

He will also compete this weekend, at 50m and 100m freestyle, in the third meet of this prestigious event in Barcelona, Spain.

For García, this European tour is part of his preparation for the Central American and Caribbean Games 2014, which will take place in November in Veracruz, Mexico.

Volleyball

Cuba yesterday remained unbeaten in Group F of the World League Volleyball-2014 in Tunis, by defeating Mexico three sets to zero.

Cuba's coach, Rodolfo Luis Sanchez, was pleased with how his team continues to grow and acknowledged that his side's 3-0 (25-23, 25-16, 25-20) win over Mexico was a good illustration of this.

“The game's level was very good even though the trip to Tunisia wasn't easy and affected the players’ stamina. Today's victory was important to confirm qualification to the next chapter of the competition, especially in terms of our development as a team.”

Cuba's captain, Rolando Cepeda Abreu said, “The high level of our play was due to our good preparation because we knew this game was going to be the toughest and the key to qualifying.”

Javier Jimenez with 12 points and captain Rolando Cepeda with 10, were the most prominent players for the winners, who won 33 points in attacks, 14 in blocks, two with the service and stole 26 due to their opponents mistakes.

For the defeated, the best players were Jesús Valdés with 11 points and Daniel Vargas with 10. The Mexicans gained five points for blocks and services, and 16 for the blunders of the opposition.

Today, Cuba will face the host team, Tunisia, who earlier lost 1-3 to Turkey, while Turkey will play Mexico.

World Cup

Many fans in Cuba of the Spanish team or the so-called Red Fury were disappointed yesterday with the squad's disastrous losse against the Netherlands at the FIFA World Cup on Friday.

A minute after the final whistle went, the stadium announcer at the Arena Fonte Nova followed a new trend from this World Cup and declared: “The final score was Netherlands 5, Spain 1.”

Holland had got what the Spanish describe as a manita, a little hand: a goal for each finger. This was the worst defeat a defending champion had ever suffered at the World Cup and it was the first time Spain had conceded five at the tournament since they were last in Brazil, 64 years ago.

Spain offered virtually no resistance. They looked broken, powerless, unable to do anything to palliate the beating, just look forlornly at the clock and will it to run down.

However, Spain were defeated in the opening game four years ago and still won the tournament, so we still have to see how things develop for tha current champions.

Meanwhile, England begin their World Cup campaign on Saturday when they take on four-time winners Italy.

The two sides will meet in the city of Manaus in north-west Brazil, where the heat is expected to exceed 30C.

According to the BBC, at least 3,000 fans have made the 5,500-mile trip to follow their national team, who are in Group D and will also play Uruguay on 19 June and Costa Rica five days later.

Prime Minister David Cameron has sent a good luck message to the England team.

Other matches of the packed day three at the WorldCup are Colombia vs Greece, Uruguay vs Costa Rica and Ivory Coast vs Japan.