Cuba will debut today with nine of the 17 judokas who will participate in the individual tournament of the 50th edition of the Pan American and Oceania Championships that will conclude this Saturday in Santiago de Chile, with the presence of 206 athletes -112 men and 94 women- from 24 countries.
According to the International Federation’s website www.ijf.org, the divisions that will have action Friday will be those of 48, 52, 57 and 63 kilograms (kg) for women, and 60, 66 and 73 kg for men, with the main Cuban figure in Maylin del Toro (63 kg), eighteenth in the world ranking (WR).
The other eight Cubans who will compete on this first day of the competition are Jonathan Charon (60 kg/60 RM), Orlando Polanco (66 kg/59 RM), Marlon Alejandro Herrera (73 kg/314 RM) and Hector Lazaro San Roman (73 kg/no place in the WR).
Debuting for the women’s national team will be Yainet Coronado (48 kg/188), Lilian Elianis Morera (52 kg/222), Lian Benavides (57 kg/251), Yessica Castellanos (63 kg/no place in the RM).
Recently, Granda, Silva, Maylin and Charon toured Europe, participating in the Grand Slam (GS) of Paris, Tashkent and Tbilisi, and the Grand Prix (GP) of Linz, and training camps, with a highlight for the Olympian Silva, world runner-up in Baku, but in the 90 kg.
Before returning to Havana, Granda won the bronze medal at the GS in Tashkent and was on the sixth step of the WR, a list in which Charon and Maylin were ranked 35th and 25th, respectively.
