Briandy Molina, eyeing more success in baseball 5

Briandy Molina always liked baseball. And you can see it right away, but like almost all Cubans, the first thing he played was street hand baseball, the precursor of today’s baseball 5, a sport discipline that the International Baseball and Softball Federation (WSBC) wants to promote as an Olympic sport discipline.

He was one of the pioneers of the official practice of the modality in Cuba, and the great star and captain of the team that at the end of last year won the title in the I World Championship held in Mexico.

"We Cubans were the pioneers in this discipline, and everything was a long-term process. Little by little, we perfected the work, because the street hand baseball is similar, but have different rules," commented exclusively for CubaSí the player from Havana.

"We have made a lot of progress and I think that we are getting more and more organized, with the support of Inder (Cuban Institute of Sports) and the National Baseball Federation," added the MVP of the I World Championship.

While he was in his second year at the Manuel Fajardo Sports University, the baseball department convened some skills tests to play street hand baseball. He enrolled there and after completing several scoring games among the twenty enrolled, the professors selected eight to integrate the University team. From there on, he changed his life radically.

In the teaching aspect, he had to redouble his efforts, because he was not in the course for athletes, which has fewer face-to-face sessions, so he attended classes until three in the afternoon, and then began training. He went to a tournament in France and then he officially made the national team.

But, in addition to his work as a player, Briandy is one of the main promoters of urban sports.

“Through a WSBC program, I have been teaching courses since 2017 on the Asian continent (Japan, Thailand and Hong Kong) and in the Middle East (Iran). For me, it was a great experience because I was studying at the University, and all this became a reason of pride when I reached the World Cup final against an Asian country (Japan).

“Baseball 5 was not played in Japan and I was very proud to be the one who brought the sport to them and then they made it to the final. The captain and coach of the Japanese team was one of the first athletes I taught courses to. I gave her the first elements of the modality in Tokyo, and then she came to Havana for another clinic.

"Because of the skills Japanese players bring from baseball and their baseball tradition, they were able to advance to the final, because they came with some advanced tools."

—What are the new challenges for baseball 5 in Cuba?

—In 2023, we start with the National Championship (to be held in May in Guantanamo), a Caribbean Cup (still unconfirmed) and a qualifier for the upcoming World Cup (also without a venue or date set) are planned, where we hope to obtain the ticket to be able to defend our gold medal.

Translated by Sergio A. Paneque Díaz / CubaSí Translation Staff