In the countdown to see the flame of the oldest regional multisport event of the planet in the modern era burn in the city of San Salvador, Cuba confirms that there is no other aspiration than to remain at the top of the medal table by countries in the 24th edition of the Central American and Caribbean Games.
In correspondence with the growing competitiveness within the area and the push of nations like Mexico -leader in the last competition in Barranquilla-2018- and Colombia -third, behind Cuba-, Cuba will attend the games with the aim of remaining in this vanguard and to surpass the 80 gold medals estimated to be surpassed, according to the tests carried out based on results and performances, explained to the press Oscar Nuevo Reyes, technical-methodological director of High Performance of the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (Inder).
The COVID-19 pandemic forced to adapt the training loads in atypical periods within an Olympic cycle that varied significantly. However, the redesign for the Central American and Caribbean Games allows taking a well-prepared delegation that will "fight hard" to achieve a worthy performance and remain among the first countries, and leaving out of the table the recovering the leadership -since Panama-1970, interrupted in Barranquilla- or maintaining the bid for second place, he said.
Nuevo Reyes explained that the island will be represented by 511 athletes, because despite the fact that 523 had managed to qualify, it has been informed at the last minute the removal of the women's water polo from the competitive program of the competition, and there is another rowing event, which is in the same process.
Precisely, he said, the women's water polo team was one of the strong contenders for the title among the collective sports, a forecast that is maintained in the case of the men's team in that specialty, for the handball and field field hockey teams, in both sexes, and for men’s indoor volleyball, he mentioned.
Among the six combat sports, boxing, judo and wrestling will be the ones that will push Cuba the most in the medal table, and in the case of boxing -which will go in the seven divisions set by the Olympic program-, he stressed that the fact that some of the most representative and media figures will not attend, responds to the fact that boxing traditionally takes its men by division in better shape, which does not cancel the possibility of those recovering the title in view of the Pan American Games.
Of the 511 Cuban athletes, said the INDER director, 239 are women and 272 men, and 28.2% are repeating from the previous edition, in Barranquilla.
The delegation of Cuba, he said, will take part in 34 sports of a general competitive program that has called to carry out 459 events -nine more than in 2018-, of them 215 for men, 210 for women, and 34 mixed.
(Translated by ESTI)
