US track and field athletes were set to compete this weekend in Cuba for the first time in 17 years in what officials said was a sign of warming relations between the two countries.
Thirteen Americans form part of a field of more than 240 athletes from 15 countries battling for medals in a meet yesterday and today at Havana’s Pan-American Stadium.
US tracksters last competed in Cuba in the 1992 World Cup, but are returning as US President Barack Obama moves to improve long-hostile US-Cuban relations following steps last month to ease the trade embargo imposed against Havana since 1962.
“We’re in a different season, with the new president that we have, and I believe that there is a new opportunity with sports,” Doug Logan, chief executive of USA Track & Field, which governs the sport in the US, said in Havana on Thursday.
Cuban national sports commissioner Esteban Brice said the US presence was greeted with “pleasure” and “seriousness” by Cuban officials.
The meet will actually be two events, the Copa America for multi-event competitions such as the decathlon, and the Barrientos Memorial track and field tournament.
Organizers said some of the other countries represented at the event include Brazil, Canada, Chile, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela.
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