The relatives and inhabitants of the town of Caimanera, in the province of Guantánamo, said goodbye this Sunday to Ángel Fournier Rodríguez, considered the best rower in the history of Cuba, who He died at the age of 34 of a heart attack. in United States.
“At his wake, his relatives have put on music as they could,” posted on his Facebook account the independent journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada. The students of the Rowing Academy held an honor guard in front of the coffin of the rower who was chosen among the 10 athletes of the year on the Island in 2014 and 2017.
Fournier, who a year before the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, asked to leave the national team and took advantage of the fact that he had a five-year visa to leave the Island in search of a better future and was in Texas (USA) when he suffered a heart attack. Already in 2019 this athlete went through “a vascular difficulty”, but he overcame it to rejoin high-performance sports activities.
Yusmari Mengana asked for support to transfer the remains of her husband to Cuba. “From the bottom of my heart, help me to be able to send his body to Cuba, in the land where he was born. For being a great warrior, a great father, son, husband, a great champion and a companion and friend,” he requested. After two weeks of paperwork, Fournier’s body was returned to Guantanamo.
Fournier, a year before the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, asked to leave the national team and took advantage of the fact that he had a five-year visa to leave the island in search of a better future.
Fournier Rodríguez was buried in the cemetery of the Caimanera municipality, where family, friends and a large group of athletes, teachers and Inder workers accompanied him to say goodbye. published by the official media Hit.
Fournier is survived by his wife Yusmary Mengana and two children, a 5-year-old girl and a 2-3-year-old boy.
This rower from Caimanera won five gold and two silver medals in the Pan American Games in the modalities of scull single, double scull and four scull. He participated in three Olympic Games: Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016, and won three medals in world rowing championships held between 2013 and 2017, published cubadebate.
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