From today until October 27 the Russian city of St. Petersburg hosts the II World Combat Games, in which three Cuban boxers and the women’s judo national team will participate.
The presence of the Cubans, invited by the organizers of the event, respond to the undeniable quality that have achieved both disciplines in the country, which is proven by the many medals won in many different events. Suffice to say that since 1992 these two sports have been contributed with Olympic medals for Cuba.
The judo girls will be present as a team in a competition extremely strong; they will have to deal with teams from China, Japan, South Korea, France, Brazil, Mongolia and the hosts. The composition of competition ensures only one thing: a relentless struggle, a real battle between the world’s best women’s teams.
The Cubans, winners of the bronze medals at the World Championships in Paris (2012) and Rio de Janeiro (2013), will be led by Olympic and world monarch Idalis Ortiz (+78 kg). Ortiz is joined by her fellow Yanet Bermoy, double Olympic silver medalist in the 52 kg; Anailys Dorvigny (57 kg), Maricet Espinosa (63 kg) and Onix Cortes (70 Kg).
This time the women’s team management is in the hands of trainer Ismael Burgundy, who will have the responsibility and the extreme challenge of replacing the legendary coach Ronaldo Veitía, the main architect of the awards obtained by the female judo in Cuba.
The first match of the Cubans will be on Saturday October 19 and will be against the strong Chinese squad. In this competition, you can only advance by winning.
Moreover, the boxers who attend the event will be Marcos Forestal ( 56 Kg ) , Iván Oñate ( 60 Kg ) and Jose Angel Larduet ( +91 kg ), who did not integrate the Cuban team that , since last Monday, October 14 and until the 27th will dispute the World Boxing Championship underway in Almaty , Kazakhstan.
For this edition of the Combat Games , AIBA requested the presence of the best Cuban boxers in these categories : Robeisy Ramirez ( 56 ) , Lazaro Alvarez ( 60) and Erislandi Savon ( +91 ) , but these could not attend the Russian event by being immersed in the contest in Kazakh lands
Under these circumstances Forestal, Oñate and Larduet will take the places of their training partners. In Russia they all have great credentials to sneak into the fight for the medals in their divisions.
The number of opponents in each of categories is minimal, and in the 56 Kg there are five boxers competing; in 60 Kg six and at the +91 kg only four boxers will see action.
The boys, who will travel to St. Petersburg under the tutelage of Julian Gonzalez, are in excellent shape and their direct goal is gold, officials told the Cuban press and said they were confident on the possibilities of the boxers.
Some history
The World Combat Games, presented as part of its program of skills a total of 15 sports-Olympic and non-Olympic, are accompanied by a cultural program reflecting the ancient traditions and values of martial arts, as well as the potential contributions that these could have on modern societies.
The sports that meet in these games are: Aikido, Boxing, Fencing, Judo, Jujitsu, Karate, Kendo, Kickboxing, Muay Thai, Sambo, Savate, Sumo, Taekwondo, Wrestling and Wushu.
The contest was created by SportAccord, an international organization that brings together the various international sports federations and central objective is to bring these disciplines to the general public worldwide.
The first edition of the Combat Games was held in Beijing, China, in 2010 with the participation of around 1,000 athletes and Russia led the medal harvest. This year it is due to the presence of more than 1600 athletes, with 135 set of medals in contest.
