Cuba Earns Two Gold and Two Silver Medals at the Florida Pan American Open

Cuba secured two gold and two silver medals on the first day of the Pan American Open Championship in Gainesville, Florida, United States, an event concluding today with the participation of 193 competitors — 115 men and 78 women — from 33 countries.

According to the International Federation's website, www.ijf.org, the gold medals were won by Jonathan Charón in the 60-kilogram (kg) division and Orlando Polanco (66 kg), while the silver medals were claimed by Lianet Cardona (78 kg) and Dayanara Curbelo (+78 kg).

The undefeated Charón and Polanco defeated Brazil's Michel Augusto and Joao Lira, respectively, whereas Cardona and Curbelo suffered their only setbacks after falling in the finals to Venezuela's Elvismar Rodríguez and Karen León, respectively.

Charón's other victories came against Hector Sanchez of the United States in the first preliminary round, Colombia's Johan Rojas in the second round, and Canada's Xavier Brouillette in the semifinals.

Polanco was equally dominant, overcoming Canadians Daniel Mccristal, Eliandre Barriault-Tremblay, and Luke Thomson in succession.

Prior to her final loss, Cardona earned a victory over Lydia Coleman of the United States, while Curbelo defeated Poland's Urszula Hofman and the Dominican Republic's Moira Morillo.

According to the organizers' announcement, Iván Felipe Silva (100 kg) and Andy Granda (+100 kg) will take to the tatamis this Sunday, both aiming for strong results to gain ranking points ahead of the Lima 2027 Pan American Games and the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.

Silva and Granda will open their campaigns against local athletes Caedmon Haddad and Gabriel Wilson, respectively.

So far, Venezuela leads the medal standings with five gold medals, followed by Cuba (2-2-0), Brazil (0-3-1), Canada (0-1-4), the United States (0-1-2), the Dominican Republic (0-0-2), Ukraine (0-0-2), Peru (0-0-1), and Poland (0-0-1), in that order.