Caracas, Venezuela - More than 200 Cuban athletes will take part in the fifth edition of the ALBA Games, said Osvaldo Vento Montiller, president of the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (INDER in Spanish).
Although the island's delegation will exceed three and a half hundred, 223 will be athletes and will compete in 38 disciplines, he pointed out. One of the purposes that brought him to Caracas was to evaluate the preparations for an event that returns after 12 years of absence in which expresses the spirit of integration of the peoples and countries of the area.
The ALBA sports festival will be held in April, within a complex period, said Vento, because "in the same year there will be three multidisciplinary events: this one, the Central American and Caribbean Games, and the Pan American Games".
He expressed Cuba's intention to remain as an Olympic and world power, a more difficult endeavor in the new times and under the current demands; but Cuba is working to achieve it, he said.
Vento is carrying out an intense agenda of exchanges in Venezuela, and in addition to the preparations for the ALBA Games, he examined, together with Venezuelan institutions, the Integral Cooperation Agreement between both countries, as far as sports are concerned; the idea is "to rethink it in the future", he said.
Translated by ESTI
