NBA Star Carmelo Anthony Attends Cosmos Training Session in Havana

NBA star Carmelo Anthony visited the Pedro Marreo Stadium in Havana city this morning after arriving on Sunday night in Havana along the American Cosmos team and Brazilian soccer star Pele.

Right before the end of the training session of the Cosmos, that has on its roster Spanish Raul and Marco Senna, Melo arrived in the Pedro Marrero Stadium, venue of today's game between the Cuban national team and the US Cosmos team.

Anthony stood in the bleachers, wearing a straw hat and dark sunglasses, avoiding the hundreds of reporters that came attracted by the first American professional team to come to Cuba in 16 years.

He didn't give any interviews but allowed fans to take some pictures of him at the stadium.

Volleyball

The Cuban men's team reached its 1st win in the World Volleyball League by beating the host Argentina in Group C of the 2nd level of the event, based in the city of Mendoza.

After losing in 3 sets on Friday, the Caribbean squad defeated the Argentinians on Saturday, a result with which they matched the actions in the first 2 games between the two teams.

According to the tournament website, Cuban Rodolfo Sanchez' disciples won 3-2 (17-25, 25-17, 25-21, 16-25 and 15-9), with special highlight for Rolando Cepeda, who scored 28 points, Osmany Uriarte, with 17 units, and Ernesto Javier Jimenez with 15 while Nicolas Bruno (16), Martin Ramos (12) and Federico Martina (10) were the most outstanding players of the local side; however, this Cuban young team was defeated twice in the 1st week by the Canadians, both cases in 3 sets.

So far, Canada tops the standings of Group C with 9 points, 3 wins and no losses, followed by Argentina (4-1-1), Cuba (2-1-3) and Bulgaria (0-0-1).

Next weekend the Cubans will face Bulgaria as visitors, to then receive Bulgarians, Argentines and Canadians at the Havana's Sports City Coliseum.

Table Tennis Cup

The Brazilian squad had an almost perfect performance by winning 2 gold, as many silver and 1 bronze medals, in the 5th ITTF Latin-American Table Tennis Cup, hosted by this city.

The South American representatives were impeccable in the female sector, by packing the awards podium, while among men they only lost the possibility of winning the bronze medal.

Among womens, Caroline Kumahara regained the crown she had won in the previous edition in Asuncion, Paraguay in 2014, thus becoming the only player who has climbed to the top of the podium in 3 of the 5 versions and broke the tie in scepters she had with the Dominican Wu Xue (2011 and 2013).

The silver and bronze medals went to her teammates Lin Gui, current leader of the Latin-American ranking, and Ligia Silva, in that order.

Meanwhile, in the men's event, Gustavo Tsuboi ratified his status as favorite, number one in Latin-America and 62nd in the world, by defeating in the final his compatriot Cazuo Matsumoto, who could not retain his crown of the previous contest.

Colombian Alberto Miño was the only competitor who could break the Brazilian supremacy by finishing 3rd after hard-fought matches against Brazilian Hugo Calderaro in quarterfinals and Puerto Rican Brian Afanador in semi-finals.

For the hosts, Leisy Jimenez and Jorge Moisés Campos, 2 of their main players, could not pass the group stage, while Lisi Castillo and Andy Pereira had a better performance by finishing among seats 5th to 8th in both sexes.