Havana, April 11 (JIT)-- The Cuban men's team improved the national record in the double backstroke to 70 meters during the opening day of the Medellin 2024 Pan American Archery Championship in Colombia.
Recurve archery specialists Hugo Franco, Juan José Santiesteban and Javier Vega joined their mastery to score 1,976 points, three more than the record set during the XIX Pan American Games of Santiago 2023.
It was a stimulating gift for coach Reiter Tellez on his birthday and a sample of the Island's team's form for the battle that begins this Thursday for the only Olympic quota available for those registered in the competition.
Hugo made the greatest contribution with 674 units, complemented by the 654 of Juan José and the 648 obtained by Javier to anchor in the sixth place of the list that groups 13 participating nations.
Based on the performance shown, the Cubans will have their first encounter with the Peruvian representative (1815 stripes). Given the difference, it is expected that they will be able to solve this match without too many setbacks, a prelude to a complicated confrontation with Mexico (2008), third in the qualifying round.
In the women's competition, only Larissa Pagán was able to surpass 600 points -she scored exactly 609-, which, together with Yailín Paredes (570) and Maydenia Sarduy (560), rounded out the harvest of 1,746.
That figure was enough to place them in seventh place to open the match segment with the Salvadorans (1593) as their opponents. If they are successful, they will have the Brazilians (1928) as their next obstacle.
As in the men's section, the competition only guarantees an Olympic berth to the winning team, with the particularity that the Mexicans already have a reserved place in the competition under the five rings. If they are crowned in the coffee city, the ticket will go to the other finalist team.
The results of each archer in the qualifying round held on Wednesday also defined the pairings for the individual and mixed team competitions, which will not be of a qualifying nature.
As luck would have it, Hugo and Javier's paths crossed in the 32-competitor phase, after defeating their first rivals, while they advanced to a complicated battle with Mexico's Carlos Rojas in that round scheduled for Friday.
On the same date, Larissa and Yailín will have as opponents the Colombian Ana María Rendón and the American Catalina Gnoriega, respectively. Maydenia was not as fortunate, losing her first match against Emma Duran of Panama.
In the mixed teams, Larissa and Hugo will pair up to face the British Virgin Islands duo of Anne Abernathy and Nicholas D'Amour.
