The Cuban basketball player Leydis Oquendo passed away this Wednesday in The Savior due to postoperative complications, according to official media reports on the island. He was 40 years old.
The player, born in the Camagüey province, had recently concluded her participation in the Major Women’s Basketball League of that Central American nation, where she won the leading scorer award in the 2022 season, according to a note published in the sports portal Hit.
Cuban basketball player Leydis Oquendo passed away
The Cuban Sports Movement mourns the disappearance of the 40-year-old athlete. #Basketball #Cuba https://t.co/9A4EMuGjmM pic.twitter.com/MLgrqFm9tx— JIT Cuban Sport (@jit_digital) October 6, 2022
According to a office from the agency Latin Press (PL), Oquendo had undergone surgery to remove a fibroid and suffered a postoperative pulmonary thrombosis that caused his death.
The player from Camagüey was a member of the national preselections for more than 16 years and participated in the world championships in Brazil 2006 and Turkey 2014, adds Hit.
Among his most outstanding results with the national squad stands out the sixth place obtained in the youth world championship in 2001. With the island’s national team he won two editions of the Central American and Caribbean Gamesand the Centrobasquet tournament five times (2004, 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2012).
The Cuban basketball player was in El Salvador hired by the FASS Fever club, from the Major League, with which she won the title of the most recent campaign.
In that Central American nation he had won several trophies as a member of the Santa Tecla BKB, and before that he had participated in professional tournaments in the Dominican Republic and Argentina.
“We are dismayed by his physical disappearance, it is a hard blow for the Cuban basketball family and sports in general,” former player Dalia Henry, president of the Cuban sports federation, told the media.
“We are very sorry for your loss. Please extend our heartfelt condolences to your family and friends,” added the directive.
