Osleni Guerrero became this Sunday individual champion of the 28th Pan-American Badminton Championship, held at the Sports Palace in the Olympic Center in Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic. For the first time a Cuban athlete takes the continental title in this discipline.
Via Facebook he told OnCuba: “To me this has been a special victory, since I had the chance to participate in two previous finals and I didn’t get to the top… it was actually a debt with myself”.
During the match for the title he stood up against US Sattawat Pongnairat, number one in the regional ranking; a match that turned into a regional classic in which Osleni was always successful. During this season he had been defeated in the Sao Paulo Open semifinals, where he reached the second place.
On this occasion, the victory was spectacularly marked. After falling in the opening set (17-21), he stood strong and at a crazy speed won over the remaining sets (21-6) (21-10), and added 5000 points to his score, which should assure him a few steps up in the international list. According to the website of the event, on October 24th, he was in the 86 th position.
On his way to the finals, Guerrero had made no allowances in four games. He started with an easy victory against Argentinean Federico Diaz (21-10) (21-7). The next day he swept with Cuban Leodanis Martínez (21-12) (21-14). In the next stage he cleared ambitions by Mexican Lino Muñoz in no much more than half hour (21-14) (21-15) and later he assured the silver medal by beating US Howard Shu, third place continentally and 99th internationally.
Leading the premiere of Cuban badminton at the Olympic Games is Osleni Guerrero´s great dream. Motivation and dedications are mixed in this 24 year-old Cuban, and these are key elements for assuring his presence at Rio de Janeiro 2016. Since that historical silver medal at Guadalajara´s Pan-American Games, Osleni has had notorious success.
Being among the top-100 in this discipline, even locating himself among the first 70, winning at regional open events, achieving the right to participate at this years´ world match in China and being granted a scholarship of the Badminton Pan American Federation, which will definitely improve his performance at international levels; are all concrete examples of his sustained progress.
Yesterday´s title is added to his personal set of achieved goals. He enjoyed twice as destiny made it happen on his mother´s birthday: “you can not imagine the pleasure to gift my mother with that victory on such occasion”, he noted. From Monday, also in Dominican soil, he will compete at the Santo Domingo Open, to later on close the season in Surinam and Mexico.
Among his desired goals there is the first triumph at international events and to place himself among the best 50 badminton players of the planet. In this regard he said: “these are my main goals…, which are difficult but I have to work hard to achieve them”.
From OnCuba we express our support and will keep informed on his next challenges.
Author
Daniel A. Fernández
