Judo: Silva starred Cuba’s best performance in Doha

Iván Silva's fifth place in the 90-kilogram division was the best Cuban performance in the Baku 2024 Judo Grand Slam, the second stop on the crucial tour to seek qualification for next summer's Olympic Games to be held in Paris.

He was left out of the top-3 after he lost to local Murad Fatiyev in the semifinals and then to the experienced Bulgarian Ivaylo Ivanov in the bronze medal bout. However, he did add up important points to his personal ranking.

Maylín del Toro (63-kg) also had a good performance in Baku. She ended seventh, in a very exhausting competition, she had to fight in the repechage without no time to rest after facing the golden rule in the previous bout.

Nonetheless, it was a major result for both. Consequently, they are now well placed in the world ranking in view of Paris 2024. Ivan is now 18th and Maylín 20th in the aforementioned ranking. Not to mention there are more than one athletes representing the same country ahead of them.

As we have mentioned before, the World Ranking will grant 17 spots in each division, with no more than one athlete per country. Most of our athletes were out of that privileged list earlier this month. After some results, both, in addition to Andy Granda (+100-kg, number 6th), are the Cuban judokas with their tickets almost guaranteed.

Of course, the Cuban heavyweight judoka (Andy Granda) would be wise to participate in any other competition and aim to improve that spot, so he could later be paired easier in the Olympics.

The other two Cuban with some chances to participate in Paris 2024 are Magdiel Estrada (73-kg) and Idalys Ortiz (+78-kg). But they could not add up too much in Baku and remained the same spot.

Magdiel is currently placed 21st, with two Russian and three Uzbeks ahead, while Idalys is currently owning the 25th place, just behind two Dutch, four French, two Japanese, and two Chinese, which would leave her in the 19th spot.

The situation of the rest of the team is as follow: Orlando Polanco (66-kg) is placed 41st. In all honesty, he and the rest of the team will have a tough time to qualify this way, if not impossible, and they will have to go all out in the Pan American tournament scheduled for April 22nd-28th to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where judokas from Oceania will also seek for their qualification.

The World Tour events close on June 23^rd, 2024, and the Grand Slams of Tashkent (March 1^st-3^rd), Tbilisi (March 22^nd-24^th), Antalya (March 29^th-31^st), Kazakhstan (May 10^th-12^th) rise up over the horizon (and the Abu Dhabi World Championship (May 19^th-23^rd), in addition to other Grand Prix events in which Cuba regularly competes.

Translated by Sergio A. Paneque Díaz / CubaSí Translation Staff