The wrestler Yosvany Peña, champion of the Americas last May, was the first Cuban representative in the World Championship of the discipline in Belgrade, Serbia, and he did not have much luck, since he lost in his debut against a rival without much posterity like the Greek Georgios Prevolarakis.
Peña, a three-time continental starter, started impetuous and was much superior in the first quarter, which he dominated with a 4-0 scoreline. The West Indian showed credentials and billed four units in a matter of seconds, but could not sustain the pace for the second half of the fight.
Prevolarakis did not give up his weapons and got six points in the blink of an eye, with a projection of four lines and a back pass that gave him another two cards. Peña was totally surprised and showed no signs of recovery, to the point that he only scored again when he took his rival out of the competition area.
As expected from the Hellenic fighter’s previous results, he succumbed in his second fight against Uzbek Aram Vardanyan and was unable to advance, which also ended Pena’s chances of sneaking into the repechage.
According to the schedule of the event, this Sunday Luis Alberto Orta (63 kg) and Juan Luis Conde (97) will climb on the mattress, while on Monday Kevin Yurán de Armas (60), the other Cuban exponents in the Greco-Roman style, will see action.
Orta, Olympic champion in Tokyo, will begin his career in the World Cup against the Ukrainian Oleksandr Hrushyn, a young 24-year-old fighter who won the bronze medal at the European Championships in the discipline, held last June.
According to information from Cubadebate, the island’s squad faces the contest with the important casualties of Daniel Gregorich and Oscar Pino, in the process of recovering after contracting dengue, while Gabriel Rosillo remains sidelined after a knee operation that has kept him away of high competition for several months.
In the freestyle will be Reineris Andreu (57), Alejandro Valdés (65), Franklin Marén (74), Yunieski Torreblanca (86) and the Olympic tan Reineris Salas (97 kg). Among the ladies, Laura Herin (53), Yaynelis Sanz (55 kg) and Milaymis de la Caridad Marín (76 kg) will compete.
The other member of the Antillean delegation is the four-time Olympic champion Mijaín López, although he will not compete in the Belgrade event. Everything seems to indicate that the stellar fighter will continue to compete until the 2024 Paris Games, so he will take advantage of this opportunity to evaluate potential rivals and conduct training sessions.
Within the framework of this contest, the Cuban referee Orestes Molina was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the World Wrestling Union (UWW). A participant in nine Olympic Games from Moscow 1980 to Rio 2016 (only he was not in Seoul 1988), Molina was vice president of the Referees Committee of the governing body of the discipline between 2013 and 2016.
