Radio Cadena Agramonte emisiora de Camagüey
Asunción, August 15.- With two teams in the consolation rounds and 10 athletes scheduled to compete, Cuba faces the sixth day of the II Junior Pan American Games today, another sweaty season with few chances of reaching the podium.
In a day without favorite tags the Cuban goal is to gain positions, experience and, if the script allows it, sneak into finals that today seem uphill.
The capital’s velodrome concentrates the technical pulse of the day. The cyclists Keila Leal and Maikel Cifran will face the keirin, test of short nerves and long accelerations, while the binomial Liannis Mesa-Karen Martínez and Amed Marcos-José Domínguez will compete in the madison of both sexes.
In sailing, the sport that opens its calendar this Friday at San José de Encarnación Beach, Cuba already has its nautical chart: Adriano Castro (formula kite), Angélica María Rodríguez (ILCA 6) and the duo on the IQFoil board, Elizabeth Buchillón and Miguel Abad.
Regarding team sports, women's handball will face Chile for seventh place, a duel that will close out the itinerary for a squad determined to say goodbye with a victory.
Under the lights of the COP Arena, women's volleyball will face Costa Rica for fifth place, a match that feels like a final exam for a generation seeking skill and confidence far from the honey of medals.
The medal table thermometer keeps the delegation in tenth place, with two golds -Dayanara Curbelo in the women’s judo 78 kg and the men’s boat of four pairs of short oar-, plus two silver and three bronze.
The comparison with Cali-Valle 2021, where Cuba collected 70 medals (29-19-22) and finished fifth, calls for caution: without boxing in the call and with a judo below expectations, the equation of this edition requires other keys.
Even so, athletics and wrestling -which at the last event contributed 33 podium finishes, 18 of them gold- remain on the horizon as the chapters that could rewrite the tone of the final balance.
Context matters. For a country in economic crisis, every personal best, every classification, and every improved position have a value that isn't listed on the honor roll, but is in the biography of its athletes.
Thus Cuba arrives on the sixth day: with the probability scoreboard against it, the full schedule, and the conviction -sometimes silent, sometimes epic- that each outing on track, court, or water is an opportunity to push the limit a centimeter more.
Competing is also resisting: traveling, training with what’s available, calibrating ambitions, and maintaining the ritual of the jersey. (Source: Prensa Latina)
