I thought that the controversy this year with the selection of the best athletes of the season would center between the fighter Mijaín López and the boxer Andy Cruz, but once again the reality surprised me, and this time for the worse.
Yes, because if debate is always welcome when it comes to praising those who deserve it, when the opposite is done, it feels bad for both the athlete and the fans.
Mijaín was the winner of the parchment at the national level, to which he also added the distinction of Best Latin American Athlete, but the standard bearer of the Cuban delegation in Tokyo was not chosen as the best in his province.
Inexplicably, the authorities of Pinar del Río preferred to confer the award to boxer Roniel Iglesias, also an Olympic monarch, and of course the idol of Herradura felt his self-esteem hurt.
As great as he is, at no time did he demean Roniel, he simply expressed his annoyance at not having been nominated, although then popular pressure caused them to back down and decide to share the award between the two athletes.
But worse happened with the boxer Arlen López, who also started in the Japanese capital, who was not chosen among the best of the year, when several appeared on the roster who did not rise to the top of the podium in the main event of the season.
It also drew attention that in his province of birth, Guantánamo, he was selected as the most prominent, which was an obvious sign that they were not in tune with the national authorities.
The president of the Cuban Boxing Federation, Alberto Puig, said that Arlen was not included in the list because he did not want to participate in the World Championship of the discipline, but the boxer himself expressed in his social networks that at that time he was not treated as a sanctioned.
In his Facebook account, the Guantanamo explained that he was not ready to take on the challenge of the world contest, because he had missed training days after being infected with Covid-19 and that is why he preferred not to attend the fair.
Even though the coaching staff did not like this, because it left the squad incomplete, at no time did they tell him that he was facing a sanction, according to his words.
In addition, ultimately the pandemic wreaked more havoc on the payroll, and the double summer starter was not the only one absent.
I can hardly believe that Arlen refused to compete for any reason other than the one he stated, and I understand that he feels bad because they did not understand his reasons.
Unfortunately, unlike the previous case, in this case there was no rectification despite the fact that popular pressure was also great.
I only hope that this dispute does not push us to another loss of talent, because that would be a real shame.
