Magdiel Estrada, 29, escaped last Wednesday in Brazil
14ymedio, Havana, 28 April 2024 — The Pan American and Central American judo champion, Magdiel Estrada, 29, fled the Cuban delegation in Brazil last Wednesday. However, it was not until Friday that it was confirmed by the official media Jit. The young man, a native of Matanzas, did not show up for his match on Friday in the 73-kilogram category in the Pan American and Oceania Judo Championship held in Rio de Janeiro and escaped from the Island team “before fulfilling his commitment,” Jit said.
Magdiel Estrada did not show up for his Friday match in the Pan American and Oceania Judo Championships
The first news of Estrada’s ’desertion’ was given on the Facebook page ‘The Truth of Judo’. The same publication pointed out that it was an “intelligent decision” of an athlete who, due to his age, was about to leave the national team. He recalled that “there are countless glories with world and Olympic results,” but when the cycle ends the “privileges fall off.”
The Play-Off Magazine portal reported that Estrada was deleted from the list of the Olympic classification ranking after his escape. “He appears as retired.” It also said that with Estrada’s dismissal, “Judo and the Cuban sports movement lose a prominent figure less than three months before the great date in the French capital. A phenomenon that doesn’t stop.”
At the Pan American Games in Santiago de Chile (2023), Magdiel Estrada won gold in the mixed team category. That same year he also won the gold medal at the Central American Games in San Salvador, in addition to the Pan American Judo Open in Lima.
He also won the gold medal in the Pan American championships held in Peru (2019) and San José (2018).
The escape of Estrada joins that of Lázaro Castro, who abandoned the Cuban soccer team in Managua, on April 18
Estrada’s escape is in addition to that of defender Lázaro Castro, who left the Cuban soccer team in Managua, Nicaragua, on April 18. The news was announced by journalist Andy Lans, who said that the team led by Osmel Valdivia was left with 13 athletes.
Before Castro, last February, Osmany Diversent, the gold medalist at the Central American and Caribbean Games in San Salvador, fled before his participation in the Pan American Olympic qualifying tournament.
The digital creator Roly Dámaso, who closely followed the incidents of the event, also spread the news of the escape of Susana Martínez and Santiago “Santiaguito” Hernández at the beginning of that same month.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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