He World Youth Championship of Judo closed its individual phase this Tuesday in the city of Limein Peru, and Cuba said goodbye to that instance without entering the medal table of the contest.
On the final day, the best chances of breaking the drought rested on Dayana Curbelo in the +78 kilogram division, but the girl said goodbye with a seventh place, according to the report of the Cuban News Agency (ACN).
Seventh place for Curbelo in the Judo World Youth Championship
It turned out to be the best performance for #Cuba in the fight #judo #CubanSporthttps://t.co/xtoGhpTZkH pic.twitter.com/OfKDDxjuBv— JIT Cuban Sport (@jit_digital) October 8, 2025
The recent queen of the Asunción 2025 Junior Pan American Games said goodbye to the tournament when she sought to advance from the repechage, losing by ippon to the Estonian Emma-Melis Aktas.
In her debut, the Cuban got rid of the Romanian Roxana Visa in the same way, but in the next presentation she stumbled against the Egyptian Safa Soliman, who cut off the direct route to the podium.
Curbelo’s performance ended as the most outstanding of the Cuban army, since Lisrialis González (78 kg) and Zair Ramírez (100 kg) could do little else on the day.
Lisrialis won her first fight by ippon against the Kazakh Saltamat Ajametova and then lost against the Bosnian Juana Isabel Klinger, the information states.
For his part, Ramírez opened with a backhand for Yuko against the Kazakh Askar Birzhanov, and fell far short of expectations.
Cuba was represented in the event by five other exponents who were also far from the podium, among them Jon Kuan Fleitas (73 kg), Alexander César (81 kg) and Glenda Masó (70 kg).
Before, they had given up on their aspirations to advance in the fight for the medals, Mauricio de Armas (66 kg), and Dalí Semanat (52 kg).
This Wednesday, a mixed Cuban squad will be among the 12 that will compete for prizes in the team modality.
That list is headed by Japan, champion of the individual competition by winning five gold, four silver and four bronze medals, followed by Brazil (2-1-2) and the Russian representative that competes under the flag of the International Federation (1-3-1), in that order.
In the collective modality, the duels between the competing teams are settled in the men’s divisions of 73, 90 and +90 kilograms, while the girls fight in 57, 70 and +79.
Low hours on the tatami
The Cuban performance in the universal event for youth confirms the unfortunate moment that Cuban judo is experiencing, far from the moments of splendor that made it a world power.
The failure at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games was followed by a similar performance at the Senior World Championships, held this year in the Hungarian city of Budapest.
Figures with relevant results such as Andy Granda failed in the Magyar city, when he could barely go beyond his first presentation, as in the case of the man from Matanzas, medalist in these fights.
In this way, Cuba finished in 24th place in the ranking by country and chained its third World Cup incursion to get close to the podium, since it previously happened in the one organized in Doh (2023) and Abu Dhabi (2024).
