Baseball
Neither of Ciego de Avila's Los Tigres or Industriales' Los Leones yielded in their respective commitments and continue to lead the standings of the 55th National Baseball Series, while Granma's Los Alazanes escaped from the sweep of Isla de la Juventud and kept the stalking.
Ciego de Avila beat Santiago de Cuba by a score of 10-3 to stay on top before the siege of Industriales', who completed the sweep over Holguin.
The Avilanians, current champions, ensured the success through great offensive of 16 hits, highlighting the outfielder Yoelvis Fiss' role, 4-3 with 2 RBIs, while catcher Yadir Rabí won his 5th win of the Season unbeaten.
Ciego de Avila remained to lead with 1 game over Industriales, winner of Holguin for the 3rd consecutive day, this time 7-1.
Frank Monthiet spread 6 hits and 1 run in 7 innings for his 3rd triumph, supported by Lourdes Y. Gourriel's offensive, who hit 4-3, included 1 double and 3 trailers.
Pinar del Rio battled for 12 chapters to overcome Mayabeque 6-5 with 2 RBIs by designated Dayron Hernández, while in the 2nd meeting Pinar smiled again this time 7-3 thanks to outfielder Yasser Julio Gonzalez' prominence role, who gave a couple of homers and 1 double with 4 trailers.
In other results, Granma won Isla de la Juventud 2-0, Villa Clara 3-0 to Las Tunas, Matanzas 3-2 to Sancti Spiritus to complete the sweep in their subset, Guantánamo 8-4 to Camagüey, while the Artemisa-Cienfuegos challenge was suspended for rain.
After these results, Ciego de Avila leads with 18 and 6, followed by Industriales (17-7), Granma (16-7), Pinar del Rio (14-8), Las Tunas (13-9), Sancti Spiritus and Villa Clara (13-11), Matanzas and Guantanamo (12-11), while at the bottom are vying Isla de la Juventud (12-12), Havana (10-11), Holguin and Santiago de Cuba (10-14), Artemisa (6-15), Camagüey (5-19) and Mayabeque (4-19).
The championship resumes on Thursday with the Guantanamo-Pinar del Rio, Las Tunas-Industriales, Artemisa-Isla de la Juventud, Mayabeque-Holguin, Santiago de Cuba-Matanzas, Granma-Cienfuegos, Sancti Spiritus-Ciego de Avila, and Villa Clara-Camagüey duels.
Cuba-USA
The love of sports can further unite our peoples, said in Havana Asa Hutchinson, Governor of the U.S. state of Arkansas, after playing a basketball game with Cuban players.
Hutchinson and his director of economic affairs, Mike Preston, shared the court with several players of Havana's Capitalinos team and took the victory 33-23 in a game the whole court, placid, and without much opposite defense.
The 1st US governor to officially visit Cuba since the formal reestablishment of diplomatic relations on July 20th, scored 8 points himself without too much pressure.
"I had fun, I really enjoy these games, not because it's particularly good, but it is something healthy and creates bonds," the 64 year-old governor told reporters.
Among his objectives are included enhancing commercial and institutional relations, and facilitate educational and sports exchanges between the State of Arkansas and Cuba, as part of the process initiated last December 17th.
Asked if this cap shows that Cubans and Americans can play on the same team, Hutchinson smiled and simply replied that this meeting reflects a common love of basketball.
Before the meeting, Hutchinson spoke with former player Ruperto Herrera, president of the Cuban Basketball Federation, who was recently included to the Hall of Fame along with the legendary Michael Jordan.
Finally, he spoke with members of Capitalinos and autographed a ball with the dedication "For love of the game" and left the Sports City Coliseum convinced of a truth: Without blocking, you can play easier.
Volleyball
The Cuban women's volleyball team will face Puerto Rico in the quarter-finals of the 2015 Women’s NORCECA Continental Championship, Volleyball Final Four Olympic Qualifier, held at Bicentenario Auditorium of Morelia city, Mexico.
On Tuesday, Cuba lost to the United States 0-3 (16-25, 18-25 and 28-30), so they finished in 3rd place in Group A.
The other 2 to be classified to the pre-Olympic will be the winners this Wednesday among the Cuba-Puerto Rico and Canada-Mexico clashes.
Boxing
The World Boxing Championship which starts next Tuesday in Doha, Qatar, gives 23 seats to the Rio de Janeiro Olympics-2016.
Cuba has already 5 classified: flyweight Yosvani Veitia, light Lazaro Alvarez, light welterweights Yasniel Toledo, medium Arlen Lopez and light heavyweight Julio Cesar La Cruz, all classified during the V World Series.
Coach Rolando Acebal said the goal in the World cap is to get at least 3 other tickets.
