Baseball
Matanzas strengthened its leadership at the 54th Cuban Baseball Series to overcome 12-7 to Industriales on Tuesday to reach 19 wins and only 9 failures.
Matanzas' Los Cocodrilos deployed a 16-hits offensive, especially its 3rd baseman, Jefferson Delgado, author of 1 homer and 2 trailers, while Yohán Hernández allowed just 1 hit in 3 innings and a half to take the success as reliever.
Ciego de Avila was ratified on the 2nd step with 9-1 to beat Isla de la Juventud, with offensive role of designated batter Humberto Morales, 3-2, with 2 homers and 5 RBIs, while Granma handcuffed 10-6 to Cienfuegos climbing the 3rd seat, in a game marked by the 1st homer of the stellar Alfredo Despaigne, recently joined the squad after shining in Japanese baseball.
In other matches, Artemisa surpassed Las Tunas 4-3, 9-5 Sancti Spiritus to Santiago de Cuba, and Camaguey 5-2 to Holguin, while the clashes Villa Clara-Guantánamo and Pinar del Rio vs. Mayabeque were suspended.
Thus, Matanzas continues to lead with 19-9 followed by Ciego de Ávila (17-10), Granma (15-9), the Isla de la Juventud (15-11), Artemisa and Industriales (16-12), Villa Clara (14-12), Guantánamo (13-14) and close Santiago de Cuba (13-15), Las Tunas (12-14), Sancti Spiritus (12-15), Pinar del Río (10-13), Cienfuegos (12-16), Holguín (11-15), Camagüey (11-17) and Mayabeque (7-19).
Guests of Honor at Veracruz 2014
Olympic and World Champions as Javier Sotomayor and Driulis González are included in the list of 13 glories of Cuban sports to attend the Central American and Caribbean Games, planned from November 14th-30th in Veracruz, Mexico, as Guests of Honor.
"It is a great honor and pride to be part of this delegation and to accompany so many young athletes I'm sure will represent our homeland with dignity in Veracruz,” said Sotomayor, who holds world records in the high jump with 2.45 meters outdoor and 2.43 indoor, and is also a member of the Cuban Athletics Federation.
Besides Sotomayor and Driulis, the list of guest stars are included former Olympic champions in boxing Orlando Martínez and Héctor Vinent, Olympic 100m runner-up, Enrique Figuerola, world champions Braudilio Vinent (baseball) and Norka Latamblet (volleyball), the Pan multi-champion in gymnastics, Erick López, world wrestling medalist Wilber Sánchez, basketball world medalist, Dalia Henry, and Pan multi-champion in rowing Ismael Carbonell.
Rounding out the list are the executives of the National Commission for Assistance to Athletes, Luis Sotolongo and Francisco Mora.
The Cuban delegation to attend Veracruz covers 780 persons, including 543 athletes, 127 coaches, 88 referees and about 50 members of the press.
Lázaro Curbelo Returns to the Ball Dominion Today
After 2 years of total inactivity, young Lázaro Curbelo, who suffers from dwarfism, returns today to his walk on tests of ball control.
The Young representative of Caimito municipality, Havana province, will try to give more than 5000 touches on the ball in 1 hour at the Havana's Copacabana Hotel, in which several world records, such as those of his fellow Erick Hernandez, has already been broken too.
Young Curbelo, 1.25 meters tall and 80 pounds, has several successful attempts in the categories of ball skills, especially those related with a bar loaded with weights upon his shoulders.
In 2009, he made 31 touches on the ball carrying 254 pounds, while in 2011, he hit the ball 183 times with 105 pounds.
