2016 sees us full of expectations, as usually is the case when the Olympic Games are on the sporting horizon, which this year will be hosted by Rio de Janeiro. 2015 was a year full of achievements for Cuban sport. A year that saw success at several world competitions, improved rankings, and a return to the top in some disciplines, after long dry spells.
Given such a year, Granma provides a selection of some of these moments of glory, marking solid steps on the path toward Friday, August 5, 2016, when the world’s eyes will be fixed on Rio.
Before then, so as to prove themselves, our athletes will be working to optimize all their capabilities in order to attempt to secure an even greater result than the five gold, three silver and seven bronze medals obtained in London 2012.
At this level, the expectations regarding our renowned boxers are high, having reigned supreme at the 2015 World Amateur Boxing Championships in Doha, Qatar, with four gold, two silver and one bronze medal, thus reclaiming their former stardom, exactly a decade after their victory in Mianyang, China, in 2005.
The win for 18 year old newcomer Joahnys Argilagos (49kg), the third titles for Lázaro Álvarez (60kg) and Julio César la Cruz (81kg), who had already shown their might in Baku in 2011 and Almaty in 2013, and victory for fellow rookie Arlen López (75kg), provided a master class and wrapped up 12 months in which the Cubans also picked up the title at the Pan American Games in Toronto (6-4-0). However, the island’s Domadores de Cuba boxing team was unable to hold onto their title at the Fifth World Series of Boxing, losing 4-6 to Kazakhstan’s Astana Arlans team in the final. Nonetheless, Cuba’s boxers concluded the year well, having secured seven tickets to the Olympics. •
DISABLED SPORTS
• The Toronto Parapan American Games were another successful test for our disabled athletes, taking sixth place overall (19-15-13) with a delegation of 50 competitors. Then at the IPC Athletics World Championships in Doha, Cuba’s six participating athletes provided highly effective performances to secure seven gold and two silver medals, placing the island tenth on the medal table and in 21st place on points (86). Four figures were the stars of the event: sprinters Omara Durand and Lenier Savon in the T-12 category (visually impaired) and Castillo Yunidis in the T-46 category (upper limb impairments); and discus thrower Leonardo Díaz in the F-56 category (wheelchair). They were representative of the inclusion and dedication that guides sporting philosophy in Cuba.
WORLD ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
• The World Athletics Championships in Beijing saw glorious comebacks for Cuban athletes, after a dry spell of six years, with wins for discus thrower Denia Caballero (69.28 meters) and pole vaulter Yarisley Silva (4.90m), together with a silver for triple jumper Pedro Pablo Pichardo (17.73m), fourth place for discus thrower Yaimé Pérez (65.46m), and seventh place in the male 4x400m relay (3: 03.05) after a season record of 2:59.80 in the preliminaries. These results saw the island finish in tenth place on the medal table, and twelfth on the score board with 30 points. The United States (214), Kenya (173), Jamaica (132), Germany (113), Great Britain and China (94) occupied the top positions.
CUBA –U.S. RAPPROCHEMENT
• Several examples of a rapprochement between Cuba and the United States in the field of sports were seen this year. December 17, 2014, marked the beginning of the process towards the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between both countries. The visit by the New York Cosmos football club who played a friendly match against the island, the goodwill delegations and training sessions by Major League Baseball and former NBA stars, the visit and friendly basketball game with Asa Hutchinson, governor of Arkansas, attest to the intentions of both countries to establish further sporting exchanges.
CARIBBEAN SERIES
• An epic battle of balls and strikes, with the Vegueros of Pinar del Río team producing an increasingly strong performance for the island, finally beating the Tomateros de Culiacán, from Mexico 3-2 at the Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Thus the Caribbean Series baseball title returned to Cuba after a 55-year wait by fans of the sport, following the 1960 victory by the Cienfuegos club led by Tony Brown, which won undefeated (6-0) in Panama. There, Frederich Cepeda from Sancti Spiritus deserved the award for most valuable player of the team managed by Alfonso Urquiola.
PAN AMERICAN CANOEING
• An unprecedented event in the history of the Pan American Games was seen this year with the Cuban team. The island’s athletes saw six canoe/kayak titles in the nation of the Maple leaf thanks to the efforts of kayakers Jorge García and Yusmary Mengana. García won the K-1 event (3:40.990), the K-2 event together with Reinier Torres (3:25.932) and the K4 rowing with Torres, Reinier Mora and Alex Menéndez (3:01.744). Mengana demonstrated her power winning gold in the K-1 200 and 500 meters with respective times of 42.946 seconds and 2:00.656 minutes, as well as in the K-2 500 meters alongside Yuriena Guerra with a time of 1:48.653. Yusmary sealed her successful 2015 with Olympic qualification, on taking fifth place in the singles Kayak 200 meter final A on the Idroscalo lake of Milan (41.828 seconds).
WORLD GYMNASTICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
• “The greatness of a man is not measured from his feet to his head, but from his head to the sky,” Napoleon Bonaparte once said. If there were a Cuban athlete capable of emulating the phrase it is gymnast Manrique Larduet. Not every day is a discipline which for Cuba has seen 14 years of silence at the world level and 12 in the Olympics rescued. The athlete from Santiago measuring 1.58 meters and weighing 63kg took the all-around silver medal in Glasgow, Scotland with 90.698 points, coming second to Japan’s Kohei Uchimura (92.332). His success was completed with a bronze medal on the high bar, with a total of 15.600 points. Larduet rounded off his successful year with a gold, two silver and one bronze medal at the Toronto Pan American Games.
