The athlete joins the ’defections’ of Robert Landy Fernández, Félix Puente Batista, Keiler Ávila Núñez, Suannet de la Caridad Nápoles and Jonathan Delgado.
14ymedio, Havana, 26 August 2025 — While the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (Inder) was celebrating because it “achieved its goal” in the Junior Pan American Games in Paraguay with the award of 47 medals (19 gold, 13 silver and 15 bronze) “adjusted to the forecast,” the escape of shot putter Emanuel Ramirez was confirmed this Sunday.
This Sunday the vice-president of Inder, Raúl Fornés Valenciano, and the general director of Deportes para Todos, José Cedeño Tamayo, received part of the group of athletes at the Havana airport. “We are proud of their performance, for being Cubans and having fulfilled the mission with which they all went to Paraguay, where our athletes were appreciated,” said Fornés without touching on the issue of the desertions.
According to the specialized media Deporcuba, the athlete “decided to leave the Cuban delegation” before boarding the flight back to the island. Ramírez, considered a “talent who aimed to strengthen himself in the shot put tests, left behind his career in the institutional field, joining the list of figures looking for a future outside the sports structures of Cuba.”
The shot putter was part of the team of 44 athletes, 20 women and 24 men, who traveled to Asunción for the event that concluded on August 23. He was a standout in the specialty. “Emanuel raised his historic high to 18.62 meters in the shot put during the X Confrontation Test of the National Team in Havana,” published the official Periódico Girón. The record placed him 13th in the history of this event in Cuba.
Ramirez’s flight is a severe blow to Cuban sports. Last July, he had an outstanding participation in the Luxembourg Rally. In August last year, with a mark of 18.42 meters, he gained tenth place at the Under-20 World Championships in Athletics. He was the third Cuban in a shot putt final in this type of event.
Ramirez joined the escape of the bronze medallists in Asunción: rowers Robert Landy Fernández, Félix Puente Batista and Keiler Ávila Núñez, who still have not approached the National Commission for Stateless Persons and Refugees (CONARE) to begin their asylum process.
In addition, the whereabouts of handball player Suannet de la Caridad Naples and judoca Jonathan Delgado are so far not known. At the end of the Junior Pan-American Games, the Tenth Police Station in Asunciòn ended its search for the athletes who left the Cuban delegation.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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