Santiago de Chile, October 19 (RHC) - The debut of two-time Olympic champion Julio César La Cruz will mark this Friday the second day of the boxing tournament at the Pan American Games Santiago-2023, which began on Thursday at the Olympic Training Center.

Monarch of Rio-2016 and Tokyo-2020 (2021), La Cruz (92 kg) will cross gloves with American Jamar Talley, a rival who exhibits as credentials the bronze metal in the Strandzha tournament, Bulgaria, this year.

Also a four-time world champion, La Cruz seeks in Chile his fourth crown in continental games, a feat that has not been achieved by any other boxer in the Americas, and that is only within his reach and that of the Cuban Lázaro Alvarez.

The other three-time Pan American Games champions - all Cubans - have already retired: Rolando Garbey, Teófilo Stevenson, Félix Savón and Orestes Solano.

In addition to La Cruz, this Friday, former wrestler Yakelín Stornell (75 kg), who could go down in history as the first Cuban to win in women's boxing at the Pan American Games when she faces Mexico's Vanessa Ortiz.       

That option was available to Arianne Imbert (66 kg) on Thursday, but she fell in the fast track against the most fiery Dominican Maria Moronta, silver medalist at the Centrocaribes in San Salvador and bronze medalist in Lima-2019.

In any case, Imbert, who showed courage and sporting shame against an opponent of higher quality, went down in the books as the first Cuban woman to compete in a continental games in boxing.

Cuba added two victories in boxing on Thursday, both in the men's contest, in the fists of world runner-up Fernando Arzola (+92 kg), winner by N/P of his rival, and Saidel Horta (57), winner by points against Mexican Manuel Vega.

Pan American boxing has the additional incentive of awarding Olympic tickets for Paris-2024 to the gold and silver medalists, and in some women's divisions it will even award up to four places.