For Yarisleydis Cirilo Duboys, 21 years old high-performance canoeing athlete, being today the youngest candidate for deputy to the National Assembly of People’s Power for the province of Guantánamo, is the biggest challenge of her life.
From early age, she has won the highest awards in canoeing, and also is the best athlete in her province and in the country.
Yarisleydis said that being selected among so many wonderful and empowered women to represent Cuban women, athletes and young people, it is also a great responsibility, which is also aware of her high responsibility as her greatest award in these years of service to the people and to the Island’s sport.
“Thank you for the support, I must not disappoint those who have trusted me,” she repeats over and over again, with a timid but at the same time cheerful voice, the young woman who could be part of Parliament, if she is ratified in district 1 that includes the outskirts neighborhoods Reparto Obrero, Norte Los Cocos Confluentes, Caribe, Pastorita and district 9, San Justo, in the Guantánamo Municipality.
But, what makes this canoeist such a model that she stands out among so many on this side of the archipelago?
«I have participated in different competitions: the World Championships in Pitesti, Romania, in which I won the silver medal in the c1 at 200 meters, and bronze in the c1 at 5,000 meters, in 2019, and the World Cup in Szeged, Hungary on May 16, 2021, where I won a silver medal.
«I was also in the II Speed Canoeing World Cup, in the City of Barnaul, in Russia, where I obtained a gold medal; in the 2020Tokyo Olympic Games, I finished at the sixth place, being the first Cuban women at this level », she explained.
In her last competition in Halifax, Canada, she dominated her c1 series at 200 meters, with a time of 46.52, showing her high performance and experience, which confirms her as a firm candidate for the podium in Paris-2024.
For this reason and more, she was considered the most outstanding female athlete in the youth category in Guantanamo, the Cuban rookie of the year 2021, and the best Cuban female athlete in 2022.
«Many people don’t’ know that at the beginnings I used to play volleyball. I really liked it and I began voluntarily. Then, several coaches from the Caimanera Nautical Academy came to my city and, through direct recruitment, due to my physical conditions, I went to that academy, I thought I would be a rower, and they sent me to canoeing,” she said.
So, it was a rising career. After wining several national competitions, at the end of the ninth grade, she made up the Cuba women’s team.
Cirilo is a champion, although she does not always win medals, she knows that her effort counts, so that she undertakes each task with commitment: “to become an Olympic champion is my next dream, and now the nomination for deputy of Cuban Parliament, is a big surprised for me,” she adds, “It is also another task that I must fulfill and I will fulfill, if the people want it that way. Count me in”. ][/bg_collapse]
