Once a sports superpower, Cuba now celebrates every gold medal at the Pan American Games.
Two of them came on Friday with two-time Olympic boxing champions and kept the team from the communist nation in competition with its Caribbean rivals the Dominican Republic.
Heavyweight Julio Cesar La Cruz beat Brazil’s Keno Machado 4-1 in the final and became the first boxer to win a fourth Pan American gold medal.
Photo: AFP
The 34-year-old is expected to be at the Paris Olympics next year.
Shortly afterward, light-heavyweight Arlen Lopez topped another Brazilian, Wanderley de Souza Pereira, 5-0.
Cuba, the Dominican Republic and hosts Chile are in a bitter fight for sixth place in the medal table as the largest multisports event in the continent reaches the midpoint.
La Cruz, a national hero back home, said that he does not want to defend his title in four years’ time in Barranquilla, the Colombian city that is to host the next Pan American Games.
“I am happy to fulfill my objective, the predictions and my task as a flagbearer for the Cuban team,” La Cruz told journalists. “I don’t think I want to arrive at my fifth games. I want to retire now and spend time with my family. Being a boxer is a big sacrifice and time away from your family. I need some rest. Cuba has a substitute already, someone who does it for me.”
La Cruz said that at the Paris Olympics he would use “will and love” to win his third Olympic gold medal.
“You have to be disciplined because the tournament is not won in Paris, you win it from now onward,” the boxer said in the most expected of the 13 boxing finals on Friday.
Cuban featherweight boxer Saidel Horta lost 5-0 to Jahmal Harvey of the US earlier on Friday.
Dominican Yunior Alcantara reduced the deficit in the Caribbean bout with a gold medal that did not make him sweat in the final.
Brazilian Michael Douglas Trindade had an arm injury that did not allow him to fight for the title of the flyweight category.
Cuba is the country with most medals for boxing in the history of the Pan American Games, but that position in Santiago was passed on to Brazil, with four gold medal winners.
‘SOURCE OF PRIDE’: Newspapers rushed out special editions and the government sent their congratulations as Shohei Ohtani became the first player to enter the 50-50 club Japan reacted with incredulity and pride yesterday after Shohei Ohtani became the first player in Major League Baseball to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single season. The Los Angeles Dodgers star from Japan made history with a seventh-inning homer in a 20-4 victory over the Marlins in Miami. “We would like to congratulate him from the bottom of our heart,” top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters in Tokyo. “We sincerely hope Mr Ohtani, who has already accomplished feat after feat and carved out a new era, will thrive further,” he added. The landmark achievement dominated Japanese morning news
When Wang Tao ran away from home aged 17 to become a professional wrestler, he knew it would be a hard slog to succeed in China’s passionate but underdeveloped scene. Years later, he has endured family disapproval, countless side gigs and thousands of hours of brutal training to become China’s “Belt and Road Champion” — but the struggle is far from over. Despite a promising potential domestic market, the Chinese pro wrestling community has been battling for recognition and financial stability for decades. “I have done all kinds of jobs [on the side]... Because in the end, it is very
No team in the CPBL can surpass the Taipei Dome attendance record set by the CTBC Brothers, except when the Brothers team up with Taiwanese rock band Mayday. A record-high 40,000 fans turned out at the indoor baseball venue on Saturday for Brothers veteran Chou Szu-chi’s first farewell game, which was followed by a mini post-game concert featuring Mayday. This broke the previous CPBL record of 34,506 set by the Brothers in early last month, when K-pop singer Hyuna performed after the game, and the dome’s overall record of 37,890 set in early March, which featured the Brothers and the
With a quivering finger, England Subbuteo veteran Rudi Peterschinigg conceded the free-kick that sent his country’s World Cup quarter-final into extra-time before smashing his plastic goalkeeper on the floor in frustration. In the genteel southern English town of Tunbridge Wells, 300 elite players have gathered to play the game they love. “I won’t say this is the best weekend I’ve ever had in my life, but it’s certainly in the top two,” said Hughie Best, 58, who flew in from Perth, Australia, to compete and commentate at the event. Tunbridge Wells is the “spiritual home” of Subbuteo, which was invented there in 1946