Mexico is once again an escape platform for Cuban athletes, in this case the taekwondoka Yamitsi Carbonell, the rower Boris Luis Guerra and the baseball player Miguel Flores. As usual, the official press called them “traitors” to their team and “their country.”
The bad news came for the regime on Sunday, when the sports site Hit confirmed Carbonell’s escape, who was part of the team that represents Cuba in the World Taekwondo Championship, which is held in Guadalajara between November 13 and 20. The woman from Santiago would have left the national delegation as soon as she arrived in Jalisco.
Carbonell was a benchmark for the team in the 73 kilogram category. His most outstanding participation had occurred in the Pan American Games in Lima in 2019, where he finished fifth and, locally, last June he won the silver medal at the Havana Taekwondo Open.
The Island squad was left with eight athletes headed by the Olympic bronze medalist and current world champion in taekwondo, Rafael Alba, and the outstanding Akely Matos (54 kg), Kelvin Calderón (74 kg), Yarobis Michael Castañeda (80 kg ), Guillermo Enrique Pérez (87 kg), Dalila Oneida Villamil (46 kg), Tamara Robles (53 kg) and Arlettys de la Caridad Acosta (62 kg).
The abandonment of Carbonell was added to the escape, this Sunday, of the rower Boris Luis Guerra. The man from Havana escaped from the group of 15 athletes who have been concentrated since November 1 in Mexico City
Added to the abandonment of Carbonell was the escape, this Sunday, of the rower Boris Luis Guerra. The man from Havana escaped from the group of 15 athletes who have been concentrated since November 1 in Mexico City and have been training on the Virgilio Uribe Olympic track for the Central American and Caribbean Championship that will begin here on November 23 in El Savior.
Guerra, together with Adrián Oquendo, won the silver medal in double pair of short oars at the Lima 2019 Pan American Games; In addition, in September, he reached the quarterfinals in the same modality together with Carlos Andrei Ajete, in the World Rowing Championships, in the Czech Republic.
After Guerra’s escape, the president of the Cuban Rowing Federation, Ángel Luis García, highlighted the presence of the Olympian, in Tokyo 2020, Milena Venegas, and the Pan-American medalist, in Lima 2019, Carlos Ajete, as the athletes who lead the representation.
This Tuesday, the escape of baseball player Miguel Flores was also confirmed. According to the journalist Francys Romero in their social networks, the U-18 team member slipped away an hour before boarding the flight at the Mexico City International Airport bound for Havana. “He is the 49th athlete to leave a delegation in 2022,” he stressed.
The left-hander was highlighted by the communicator “among the best prospects in U-18 baseball in 2022, backed by a fastball between 88-90 miles and dream numbers in the National Championship of the category.”
In recent months, there have been desertions of Cuban athletes from various disciplines – mostly baseball – to which boxing, volleyball, Greco-Roman wrestling, handball and athletics have joined. Official data puts more than 800 athletes who have left Cuba in the last decade.
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