Manuel Suárez Tournament: All Athletes with San Salvador as the Goal

Manuel Suárez Tournament: All Athletes with San Salvador as the Goal
Fecha de publicación: 
21 March 2022
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Cuba and its weightlifters are going up on the platform at the High Performance Athlete Training School Cerro Pelado, with the goal of accumulating as many medals as possible, which will allow them to be among the top three nations in both sexes to earn the presence of seven men and as many women in the Central American and the Caribbean Games in San Salvador 2023.

Our athletes will be competing against weightlifters from a dozen countries, seeking glory in 19 categories, so, to meet this objective, and according to estimates by the president of the Cuban Weightlifting Federation, Jorge Luis Barcelán , and in accordance with the amount of athletes registered, a dozen medals would be needed for men and eight among women.

Regarding prizes, the competition rewards the snatch, and the clean and jerk exercises, and after the first two days, the men are fulfilling their mission, thanks to the lifts of Arley Calderón (62 kg) and Reydel Herrera (67).

In the case of Arley, his winning two silver medals, backed by 270 (119-151), to escort the Colombian Habib de las Casas. Even Arley could have won the gold medal in the clean and jerk, since he practically conquered 154 kilos, but a technical error prevented him from stretching his elbows to the full and the judges invalidated that last movement.

By the way, the 62 kg is one of the divisions in which Cuba has the best potential, according to the world ranking of Calderón and Otto Oñate, who ended 2021 in position 21 and 19, lifting 274 (119-155) and 276 (120-156), in that order.

Herrera won the silver and bronze medals in snatch, and clean and jerk, respectively, with 122 and 151 kilograms. Colombian José Luis Osorio won the gold medal (123-152).

The other medal won by Cubans so far went to Franchesca Simón (45 kg), when she lifted a 64 kg followed by Venezuelan Rosielis Coromoto (69), ultimately the winner in both movements.

Simón didn’t have the same luck in the clean and jerk, as she failed her three attempts over 77 kg. The remaining Cuban girls who have competed have not been able to win a medal so far.

Current Cuban Panorama

Cuban weightlifting has experienced a decline in recent years. The leadership we used to have at the Pan-American level has been unquestionably pass down to Colombia and Venezuela, and individual performances from other countries.

Renewal of our teams mostly and departure for several reasons from what was considered the backbone of our team, mainly men have affected the current level we are at.

Hence the importance of working hard, to regain prominence in the different competitions, especially the Central Caribbean, which seems to be just around the corner. A look at what happened in Barranquilla 2018, the last match of this type, reveals that our men ended in the fifth position overall (3-9-4).

In addition to Colombia (12-9-3) and Venezuela (7-2-7), the Dominican Republic (5-7-7) and Mexico (4-5-4) came before us, countries that a little less than a decade ago never thought of ending before Cuba in a regional or continental competition.

At the Pan-American level, the decline has been just as considerable. Needless to say, despite the fact that Cuba continues to lead the continental medal table (160-55-15), in Lima 2019 only the super heavyweight Luis Manuel Lauret was able to win a medal (silver).

Four years earlier, in Toronto 2015, the winners of the 2-2-1 had been Adriel La O and Yoelmis Hernández (gold); Yadier Núñez and Marina Rodríguez (silver), and Javier Vanegas (bronze). Only Marina is still in the team.

On top of that, as the most immediate indicator and the chance of measuring new promises, what happened at the I Junior Pan American Games Cali-Valle 2021, a competition in which we finished in the sixth position with two silver medals and a bronze medal by Edisnel Corrales (73 kg), Marifélix Sarría (+87) and Elizabeth Reyes (87).

Ahead of our team, and as expected, were Colombia (7-1-1), the United States with a solid come back (3-2-2), Ecuador (2-1-2), Mexico (1-6 -0) and Dominican Republic (1-1-1).

To all this mountain of results is added the fact that, among men, Olfides Sáez from Cienfuegos is the best reference in the world rankings in his 8th place, thanks to 355 (160-195); meanwhile, among women, Marina Rodríguez, in position 14th is the best placed: 221 (98-123).

Definitely, we have work to do on the platform, in each training session, so that the kilos are translated into development and allow us to return to times of greater joy.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff

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