Radio Cadena Agramonte emisiora de Camagüey
Havana, April 13.- Marlyn Pérez (49 kg) and Kelvin Calderón (80 kg) won gold medals at the Santo Domingo 2024 Taekwondo Open, hosted by the Dominican Republic.
She had four fights and he had three to shine in their respective divisions, in a competition in which the majority of those who participated in the continental qualifier for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games compete.
Marlyn and Kelvin swept to win the trophies and in the process add 10 points in the ranking of the International Taekwondo Federation, Iván Fernández, head of the Cuban federation of this sport, told JIT from the headquarters.
Both showed their competitive tactical growth in a contest in which we decided not to compete those qualified for Paris 2024, Rafael Alba (+80 kg) and Arlettys de la Caridad Acosta (67 kg), he added.
Alba, bronze medalist at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and double world champion, will attend his third event at that level, having also been in Rio 2016. Arlettys will debut in the French capital next summer.
These last ones raised to 35 the number of Cuban athletes qualified for the event in the City of Light.
In Santo Domingo, Cubans Lilisbeth Rodríguez (47 kg), Lidia Montes de Oca (+65 kg) and Michel Suárez (70 kg) also got places for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
Parataekwondo was not called to the Open, which closes days of good taekwondo in the neighboring Caribbean nation, epicenter of the Korean martial art for almost a month, since a camp was held prior to the qualifiers.
We are happy with the performance of our boys in general. Even those who did not qualify for Paris 2024. They competed very well, said the national taekwondo commissioner as well.
Now we have to continue training for our main commitment of the year, Paris 2024, in which we hope to also get on the podium, Fernández concluded optimistically. (Text and photo: JIT)
