Boxing

The semi-weight Julio Cesar La Cruz sealed today the 3-2 credit with which Cuba's Los Domadores edged out Azerbaijan's Baku Fires to access 27 points and hold comfortably on top of Group B of the World Boxing Series.

In a lively Sports City Coliseum, the 9th consecutive smile for the Antilleans was given by the debutant fly weight Leodán Núñez and star welterweight Roniel Iglesias, who left the visitors in 18 wins, owner of 3rd place in that group.

In response to the cheers with which he was received by his fans, the universal king La Cruz starred in the most anticipated clash to trampled on 3-0 to Teymur Mammadov, Olympic bronze medal, which was his first official engagement after a surgery caused by the assault he suffered in early January.

By the visitors, light welterweight Hurshid Tojibaev was better than the local Pablo Vicente and deserved a 2-1 verdict, while the super complete Arslanbek Makhmudov also defeated local rookie Yoandris Maceo.

Hockey

Guillermo Stakemann, head of the Technical Committee of the Cuban Federation of Field Hockey, said stops currently performing with Venezuelan teams at the synthetic field of Santiago de las Vegas stadium, Havana municipality of Rancho Boyeros, are very beneficial.

He said that these meetings are part of the preparation of Cuba's male and female national teams with a view to their participation this year to the Central American and Caribbean Games in Veracruz, Mexico.

Handball

The Cuban men's handball team will face Mexico today in the penultimate date of the Pan-American qualifying championship, based in the Aztec capital until tomorrow.

Cuba amasses a win and a loss in the tournament that grants 4 tickets to the continental contest of the sport, which will be hosted by Uruguay in June.

The Caribbean squad was defeated 27-31 in its first appearance by Greenland, while in its next match it beat 21-15 the United States, according to the website of the event.

The Cuban handball players end their participation today Saturday when facing Puerto Rico, one of the most discreet teams of the competition.

For Cuba, this is an excellent opportunity for international training because it has a very young group, which average age is just over 20 years, with players who have barely faced foreign rivals.

Cycling

The Cuban Yumari Gonzalez ended in a creditable 7th place in the scratch event, corresponding to the first day of the Track Cycling World Championship, underway in the Colombian city of Cali.

Gonzalez, who was the first Cuban athlete to take part at the competition held at Alcides Nieto Patiño velodrome, once again demonstrated her capacity to be among the first 10 cyclists of the world in this modality, despite having had a happy break in her career, due to pregnancy, which temporarily took her away from competitions.

According to the official website of the event, the gold medal went to Belgian Kelly Druyts, while Polish Katarzyna Pawlowska and Russian Evgenia Romanyuta finished 2nd and 3rd, respectively.

Baseball U-15

The Executive Committee of the International Baseball of WBSC has revealed 14 of the 16 countries participating in the 2nd World Baseball Cup U-15, including Cuba again.

The event, to be held in August in Baja California Sur, Mexico, is led by Venezuela, defending champion, and Cuba, silver in the previous world cup, held in 2012, and is completed with Brazil, Mexico, Panama and the United States, representing the Americas.

Meanwhile, Europe will have the Czech Republic, Italy, Germany and Lithuania; Asia will go with Chinese Taipei, bronze in 2012, Hong Kong and Japan; Africa will be represented by South Africa, while the teams from Oceania will be announced after the Oceania Championships Sub-15 from April 3rd-6th between Australia, Guam and New Zealand, the host.

The Youth World Championship U-15 was created in 2012, and for the first time it covers the entire globe, because from the Men's Baseball World Cup 2009 no world baseball cup has had so much universal representation.

This will be the first time, for instance, that Africa and Oceania will attend such Cups, along with the Czech Republic, Japan, Panama, and the United States.