Baseball

Matanzas took revenge for the initial setback on Sunday and defeated Holguin 8x4 to hold the solo leadership at the 54th Cuban Baseball Championship.

At the Calixto García Stadium in Holguin, Victor Mesa's disciples marked the offensive but had to use 3 pitchers; Adrián Sosa won with excellent work in 4 chapters just allowing 1 hit, handed out 5 strikeouts and 1 ticket to score his 3rd victory and his team's 21st victory.

The offensive was led by Dainer Moreira with 3 hits and 2 RBIs and right fielder Yasiel Santoya with 1 homer and 1 RBI.

For the hosts, rookie pitcher Carlos Leon was defeated, while designated batter Yunior Paumier with 3 hits and 1 RBI and Yordán Manduley with 2 and 1, were the best at bat.

The success allowed Matanzas to keep 1 game ahead of Granma, winner of the 2nd consecutive day on Isla de la Juventud, now 9-0.

Lázaro Blanco worked 7 episodes with just 2 hits allowed, 4 strikeouts and 3 tickets to come to 4 hits with 2 failures, while Yuniesky Diaz took the loss in a game where Guillermo Avilés, Yordanis Samón, Lázaro Cedeño and Liuber Reyes, all with 2 RBIs, led the offensive.

In the western part, however, Industriales took its victory out of the fridge in the very 9th inning thanks to Lourdes Gurriel's decisive homer to beat Artemisa 6-4 at the capital's Latinoamericano Stadium. The left-hander Pedro Durán worked very well 5 2/3 chapters with 8 strikeouts but success went to reliever Alexander Rodriguez, who got 5 outs to close the match.

Lisbán Correa and Gurriel with 1 home run and 3 RBIs spoiled the party for the Artemisa's pitchers, especially to reliever José Ángel García, defeated for the 2nd time in the championship.

In the other clashes, the triumph of Pinar del Rio 3-0 over Camagüey; Santiago de Cuba's 5x0 at the expense of Villa Clara; the Mayabeque's 4x3 against Ciego de Ávila, and the success of Las Tunas' 3x2 facing Cienfuegos, and Sancti Spiritus' 9x1 over Guantánamo stand out.

The third subseries challenges of today were completed to take a break to prepare the team to represent the country at the XXII Central American and Caribbean Sports Games to be held in Veracruz, Mexico, from November 14th to 30th.

Badminton
The Cuban Osleni Guerrero finished 2nd at the XXIX International Badminton Cup held in Brazil, falling in 3 sets to Sweden's Henri Hurskainen.

Guerrero, who won the Pan Tournament in Toronto 2014 could not resist his opponent's artillery, owner of the 38th spot in the world rankings, who beat him in straight sets 11-6, 11-7 and 11-6 in 25 minutes of confrontation.

 Diving

The Bolivarian Swimming Complex in the city of Barquisimeto (Lara State of Venezuela) hosts from now until November 9th the South American Diving Championship, with representatives from 6 countries and quotas to Toronto 2015 Pan-American Games.

According to the Venezuelan Federation of Water Sports (FEVEDA), the event brings together competitors from Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, in addition to the hosts.

Nautical Activities for Tourism

In an effort to make its tourism product more attractive and diverse, Cuba is committed to develop nautical activities, a modality with great potential but little exploited to date.

Tourism authorities told local ACN news agency their considerations on the opportunities and challenges to promote recreational activities in Cuban marinas and nautical areas.

According to Alexander Sierra, Ministry of Tourism (MINTUR by its Spanish acronym) Development CEO, in the plan designed to boost an industry that seeks to be reinstated as engine of the economy by 2030, the above modality is one of the main priorities.

In this regard, he stressed they are now concentrating their actions in knowing the situation in this scenario, in order to execute investment to improve conditions and services in marinas, nautical centers, piers, moorings, harbors, shipyards, dry marinas and fishing and diving zones.

It is a process that must be well articulated with other policies and plans implemented by the Caribbean nation, as the Law of Ports and the one of Fishing, the shipyard recovery program, or the promotion of tourist cruise operations, among other strategies, the minister concluded.