14ymedio, Havana, 20 September 2023 — Last Monday night Cuban sports suffered another defeat. The wrestler Hangelen Llanes, gold medalist in the XXIV Central American and Caribbean Games, in the 150 pound category, escaped in France. The habanera, according to coach Daniel Gómez, left the team in Paris before traveling to Serbia. “Welcome to freedom,” Gómez wrote in a post on Facebook.
Llanes was included, along with Laura Herin, by coach Filiberto Delgado, in the team of 11 athletes who were based at a training camp in France. The intention was for them to continue their training for the Pan American Games in Santiago de Chile, which will take place between October 20 and November 5.
The coach’s goal, as he told the official radio station Radio Rebelde, was that the athletes could “have a good rest and an excellent diet, in addition to training with European wrestlers.” In the team that will travel to Santiago are Ángela Álvarez, who won gold at the University Festival in Russia, and María Fernanda Santana. Both train at the Cerro Pelado Higher School of Training of High Performance Athletes, in Boyeros.
The escape of Llanes, who last year was distinguished as one of the most outstanding athletes in the discipline, leaves Cuba without the possibility of a medal in the 150-pound category in the Pan American.
The escape of Hangelen Llanes joins the more recent escapes by wrestlers Yoannia Pérez and Liliana Duane, who in March of this year took advantage of a stopover in Mexico to leave the island’s delegation
At the moment, Filiberto Delgado has no other athlete who can fill this space. Hangelen Llanes had been reaping triumphs since 2022. In May of that year, she won the silver medal in the Pan American Wrestling Championship, which was held in Acapulco (Mexico), after falling in the final against the Venezuelan Soleymi Antonieta Caraballo.
At that event, between May 3 and 7, Ismael Borrero, Leonardo Herrera and Amanda Hernández escaped. The first one who to escape was Borrero, on the same day they arrived in Mexico. He was followed by Leonardo Herrera, the athlete who had been chosen to replace the Olympic champion Luis Orta. Amanda Hernández was the last to escape.
On that occasion, Hangelen Llanes returned to the Island. Seven months later, in December 2022, she won the gold medal in the contest held in the Parque del Este of the Dominican Republic. This was repeated in San Salvador 2023.
Llanes also attended the Pan American Wrestling Championship held in Argentina last May, where she won the bronze medal.
The escape of Hangelen Llanes joins the more recent escapes by wrestlers Yoannia Pérez and Liliana Duane, who in March of this year took advantage of a stopover in Mexico to leave the island’s delegation
Translated by Regina Anavy
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