Yesterday was a different experience at the Antonio Maceo Monument Complex in San Pedro. The emblematic site, located in the municipality of Bauta, in the province of Artemisa, served as a stage for the future of Cuban sports to receive the banner that will accompany them in the upcoming Junior Pan American Games in Asuncion.
Deputy Prime Minister Inés María Chapman Waugh and five-time Olympic champion Mijaín López, Hero of the Republic of Cuba, handed over the national ensign to wrestler Yainelis Sanz and rower Roberto Carlos Paz, escorted by Yisnoly López (canoeing) and Emmanuel de la Rosa (weightlifting), in a ceremony that evoked patriotic feelings in the place where the lieutenant general of the Liberator Army Antonio Maceo fell in combat.
In the presence of Yuniasky Crespo Vaquero, head of the Department of Attention to the Social Sector of the Central Committee of the Party, the taekwondoca Elianet María Crespo, and the beach volleyball player, Eblis Verane, laid a wreath in the exact place where Maceo and his aide Francisco Gómez Toro fell in combat.
The 231 talented young people who make up the Antillean delegation were summoned to defend with dignity, and with Maceo’s intransigence, the patriotic colors in each of the competition scenarios.
In Yainelis Sanz’s opinion, “being the Cuban flag bearer represents a great honor and an additional motivation to add my second title in these competitions. We know that the challenge ahead is great, but we have trained hard to achieve the best possible performance,” she told Granma.
On the other hand, the president of Inder, Osvaldo Vento, stated that “we are happy with the representation we are going to have in these Games. In the midst of a very complex scenario, the Revolution has allocated valuable resources for the preparation of our athletes. We cannot create false expectations, but we know that our athletes will give their all for Cuba in Asunción,” he said.
Asunción-2025 will be an ideal scenario to evaluate the Island’s sports reserve and achieve the highest number of qualifiers for the Lima-2027 Pan American Games. Those are the fundamental objectives, confirmed to this newspaper by José Antonio Miranda Carrera, general director of High Performance of Inder.
Cuba will only participate in 56% of the 336 events called, due to the impossibility of covering the entire critical route in most of the specialties. In the Cali-Valle-2021 edition, 29 gold medals were obtained, which meant a 13.6% of effectiveness, given that there were 212 competitors. A better parameter than Colombia (12.6%, with 386 members) and Mexico (12%, with 378).
This time, the studies of opponents and positions in the ranking show that the greatest potential to bring gold medals are centered on athletics, canoeing, wrestling, judo, weightlifting and rowing, with taekwondo, fencing, volleyball, beach volleyball, diving and table tennis, with real possibilities of climbing the podium of awards.
The political-cultural gala was also attended by Meyvis Estévez Echavarría, first secretary of the UJC National Committee, and the president of the Cuban Olympic Committee, Roberto León Richards.