MADRID, Spain.- The day Olympic The August 9 Olympics bring decisive moments for Cuban athletes. Four triple jumpers and a boxer will be fighting for gold, while others will try to secure a place in the finals of their respective disciplines.
Cubans today in Paris
Activities start early at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, where Yarisleidis Cyril and Yinnoly López will seek to advance to the final of the C-2 500 m women’s event. The Cuban duo will compete in the first semifinal at 4:30 am (Cuban time), on lane 6.
In their first participation, Cirilo and López did not manage to advance directly to the semifinals, as with a time of 2:03:54, they were placed behind the boats from China (1:54:45) and Ukraine (1:55:88). However, in the quarterfinal round, the Cubans improved their time to 1:56:38, and secured their passage to the semifinals. In this phase, they will fight for one of the four spots that would allow them to advance to the Final A, where the medals will be contested later in the day.
The Cuban women’s 4×400 relay team, made up of Melisa Padrón Monterrey, Daily Cooper Gaspar, Sahily Diago Mesa and Roxana Gómez, who arrive with the worst mark of the participating teams, will take the track for their first round at 4:40 am.
At 5:00 a.m., all eyes will be on Geandry Garzón, the experienced 40-year-old wrestler, who will compete in the round of 16 of the 74 kg freestyle wrestling event against Japan’s Takatani Daichi, bronze medalist at the last World Championships. Garzón, who also arrives without great pretensions, will seek to advance to the quarterfinals in what should be his last Olympic appearance.
Half an hour later, at 5:30 a.m., young canoeist José Ramón Pelier will compete in the semi-final of the men’s C-1 1000m, also at the Stade Nautique de Vaires-sur-Marne. Pelier faces a competition headed by Germany’s Sebastian Brendel, a three-time Olympic champion, and Romania’s Catalin Chirila, a four-time world medallist. To secure his place in the final, Pelier will need to place in the top four of his heat.
At 11:40 am, Marcos Rojas from Las Tunas will continue his participation in the modern pentathlon. In Thursday’s fencing round, Rojas had a discreet performance, and was placed in last place with 175 points. Today, in the B semi-final of fencing, he will try to improve his position in the general classification.
Probably the most anticipated event of the day is the men’s triple jump final, scheduled for 2:13 p.m. Lázaro Martínez, the representative of the Island who managed to qualify for this instance, will compete after registering a jump of 16.79 meters in the preliminary phase, which placed him in 11th place. Cristian Nápoles and Andy Hechavarría were left out.
The final will also feature three athletes who, although born in Cuba, represent other countries: Andy Díaz (Italy), Pedro Pablo Pichardo (Portugal) and Jordan Díaz (Spain). Pichardo and Jordan Díaz arrive as favourites, after qualifying with the best jumps in the preliminary round.
In other events, Frank Chamizo, competing under the Italian flag, will face Iranian Yones Emamichoghaei in the 74 kg freestyle wrestling at 5:00 am.
While boxer Loren Berto Alfonso, representing Azerbaijan, will seek to win the gold medal in the 92 kg category at 4:34 p.m., when he will face Uzbek Lazizbek Mullojonov. It is worth remembering that, on his way to the final, Loren Berto beat two Cubans: in his first fight he defeated Julio César La Cruz, one of the Cuban delegation’s hopes for a medal, and in the semi-finals he defeated the Cuban-Spanish Emmanuel Reyes Pla.
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