14ymedio, Havana, 25 April 2023 — The rowers Maykol Julio Álvarez, Yoelvis Javier Hernández and Osvaldo Pérez left the Cuban team participating in the qualifying tournament for the Pan American Games in Santiago de Chile 2023 that ended on April 19. According to photographer Yuniet Ávila, the desertions occurred in Chile and Mexico.
The habanero Álvarez deserted in Chile after winning, together with Carlos Ajete, Yoelvis Hernández and Reidy Cardona, the silver medal in the category four pair (4X), guaranteeing his ticket to the Pan American Games that will be held from October 20 to November 5.
Hernández, a native of Sancti Spíritus, and Cardona, of Cienfuegos, took advantage of the stopover in Mexico to escape. “These are the first abandonments from rowing team this year,” the photographer stressed on his social networks.
Cuba sent a delegation with 15 oarsmen to Santiago for the qualifying contest. The president of the Cuban Rowing Federation, Ángel Luis García, pointed out to the official media Jit the “enthusiasm” of the athletes for competing on the same track that will host the Santiago 2023 celebration at the end of the year.
The oarsmen who escaped were coming from a training on the aquatic track of the Hanabanilla dam, in the La Coronela reservoir. The Cuban managers have not offered a position.
The departures of Álvarez, Hernández and Pérez represent a hard blow for the Cuban rowing team, which last year recorded six defections. In November, Jorge Patterson and Yudisleidys Rodríguez fled after one of the training sessions on the Virgilio Uribe Olympic court, in Mexico City.
Before the escapes of Patterson and Rodríguez, Ernier Tamayo, Alexei Carballosa and Nayala Torres had fled. They were preparing in Mexico City for the Central American and Caribbean Championship that began on November 23 in El Salvador.
The first of those six desertions was one in Mexico by Boris Luis Guerra, who won silver with his partner Adrián Oquendo at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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