Baseball
Dozens of reporters and temperatures below 15 degrees Celsius today at the Incheon International Airport of the South Korean capital received the Cuban team that will participate in the Premier 12 Baseball Tournament.

Amid the expectations generated by this event and the 2-up matches summoned reporters heard the Cuban mentor Victor Mesa reiterate the purpose of a good performance.

But the most emotional moment was the arrival at Lotte City Hotel where the competition authorities, the local federation and the installation staff organized a colorful welcome, carrying flags of both countries.

The event that begins next Sunday, November 8th already joined outfielder Alfredo Despaigne and pitcher Hector Mendoza who came from Japan and the incorporation of Miguel Lahera, substitute pitcher of Alberto Bicet is also expected.

Cubans will train at the Sky Dome Stadium Gocheok tomorrow where they will play against the locals on Wednesday and Thursday, caps described as very useful for testing the athletes and variants to be applied, said Victor Mesa.

Then, the team will travel to China Taipei on Friday to play against Canada 3 days later, as part of a qualifying group that also covers the Netherlands, Puerto Rico, the hosts, and Italy.

 Chess
The Cuban GM Lazaro Bruzon maintained his excellent pace at the Ibero-American Chess Championship with 6.5 points from 7 possible and today's opponent will be Spanish River Salvador.

The Iberian city of Bilbao has been challenging for a Bruzon who looks for his 2nd crown of this kind after defeating the Argentine Fernando Peralta yesterday to take 1 full point ahead of his closest pursuers.

That group is composed of Rio himself and others known as the Peruvian Julio Granda, Brazilian Alexandr Fier, Argentine Alan Pichot, Paraguayan Axel Bachman, and Oscar de la Riva, from Andorra.

The Cuban Lelys Martinez also overcame to the Iberian Julio Trigo and up ranked 10th with 5 points and will be opponent of Venezuelan Cristobal José Blanco, another owner of 5 points.

Marabana
Carlos Gattorno, director of Marabana-Maracuba Project said in this capital that the main marathon race will be an extraordinary fair in all Cuba this year as worthy preamble to its 30th anniversary in 2016.

Speaking to the local press, Gattorno explained that the racing system implemented in Cuba is unique for several reasons, as it may include any Cuban citizen who can participate for free, the State subsidizes the event even when the number of participants is growing greater, and the whole country is fully put into its activities in all the country because in Cuba, sports is a right of the people and this is reflected in the career system.

Therefore, Gattorno said the main organizational challenge of this edition is the number of its international participants, with a figure of over 1400 runners.

Marabana, said the executive, has become an event that has reached its top quality and maturity, something that is showed by the representation of walkers from 60 countries, which clearly speaks about the earned prestige.

He added that more than 4,600 competitors, including young people stand out, those who try to prove their potential the coming 15th of November will be present.

From the point of view of logistics, he stressed that they have received the full support of the government and involved institutions and already have more than 100,000 bags of water and enough ice to ensure the attention of competitors.

The entire organizational system is guaranteed and these days remaining until November 15th will be focused on polishing every detail for the success of Marabana, said Gattorno.

Gymnastics

The Cuban Manrique Larduet watched videos of Kohei Uchimura on line for years. Growing up in Cuba, he didn’t have an example of a fellow countryman competing on that level.

So he looked up to the Japanese star, a guy whose dominance extended with a sixth consecutive all-around world gymnastics championship on Friday. But this night at The SSE Hydro, Larduet only had to look one step up the podium.

The Cuban teenager and youngest gymnast in the competition won silver in the all-around category recently concluded in Glasgow, Scotland, a surprising finish in by far the biggest competition of his young career.