Cuba will take a delegation of around 500 athletes to the San Salvador 2023 Central American and Caribbean Games with the aim of vying for the second position by country, sports authorities on the island reported this Tuesday.
José Antonio Miranda, general director of high performance of the National Institute of Physical Education and Recreation (INDER), said that this forecast takes into account that Mexico has all the potential to win that competition, according to the note published by the sports portal Jit.
#Cuba con 322 clasificados para Juegos de #SanSalvador2023
Para los Juegos Panamericanos de #Santiago2023 ha conseguido 98 cupos. https://t.co/6B3CetUaZd pic.twitter.com/QjIsuWfk7z— JIT Deporte Cubano (@jit_digital) December 6, 2022
“We have made three versions of the resolutions and we are convinced that we must work to convert several silver medals into gold, because among the desertions of various figures and other casualties, several title possibilities have been lost,” the official specified.
“We are working with reality, without triumphalism. Many training sessions will have to be personalized to get the medals we need,” he emphasized.
Miranda argued that 322 Cuban athletes are classified for the San Salvador 2023 Central American and Caribbean Games and 98 for the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games.
Quotas for the upcoming edition of the Central and Caribbean event have been obtained in 17 sports. Others must be added to qualifying matches scheduled for next year. According to the outlet, in 2023 there will be 16 events that give places by ranking, in addition to other qualifying competitions.
Sports with Cuban qualifiers are aquatics (open water swimming, artistic swimming and water polo), basketball, handball, baseball, canoeing, cycling, fencing, gymnastics (artistic, rhythmic and trampoline), field hockey, wrestling (Greco and free), figure skating, modern pentathlon, rowing, softball, archery and sports shooting, and volleyball (indoor and beach).
Quotas remain to be found in chess, track and field, boxing, badminton, equestrian, karate, weightlifting, diving, judo, speed skating, swimming, racquetball, field tennis, table tennis, taekwondo, triathlon and sailing.
Currently, a re-selection of 1,022 athletes is being prepared to assume the main commitments of the coming year, which in addition to the regional Games and the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games, includes the 5th ALBA Games, scheduled between March and April.
Regarding the continental multi-sports event to be held in the Chilean capital, the official reported that the 98 spots obtained so far have been in diving, swimming, athletics, boxing, fencing, canoeing, cycling, judo, wrestling, weightlifting, pentathlon, shooting and archery, table tennis and beach volleyball. For the Parapan-American Games, only two archery athletes are classified.
Cuba also has a ticket for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, obtained by shooter Leuris Pupo, monarch at that level in the London 2012 event.
Between the 1970 Central American and Caribbean Games, held in Panama, and the version that in 2014 was hosted in the Mexican city of Veracruz, Cuba ranked first in the medal table, except in the editions of San Salvador 2002 and Mayagüez 2010, when it was absent citing security issues.
During the event held in the Colombian city of Barranquilla four years ago, the representation of Mexico definitively took the top of the classification by countries, after winning 132 gold medals, 30 more than those won by Cuban athletes.
