Havana, December 13 (ACN) The eight Cuban parajudokas who participated in the IBSA Pan American Judo Championships in Edmonton, Canada this weekend won eight medals, spread out over two gold, two silver and four bronze.
Senén Ramos, head coach of the men’s national team, informed the Cuban News Agency (ACN) via WhatsApp that José Manuel Romero, in the 73 kilograms (kg), J2 category, and Yordenis Fernández Sastre (+90 kg/J2) have won titles.
Ramos added that the silver medals went to Sheila Samarian Hernández (+70 kg/J2), the most outstanding Cuban female disabled athlete of 2022 and world silver medalist in Baku, Azerbaijan, and Arianna de la Caridad Echavarría (70kg/J1).
The bronze holds corresponded to Yonaldi Gonzalez (73 kg/J1), Yennis Garcia (60 kg/J1), Reinaldo Zamora (90 kg/J1) and Dainelis Calunga (57 kg/J2), also under the direction of Ibis Dueñas, the coaching manager of the women’s national team.
Ramos defined the performance of the Cubans as very positive, as they achieved the expected goal one hundred percent, having all obtained medals and points for the world ranking, in view of the 2024 Paris Olympics.
It was a very strong tournament, since all the participants arrived in the Canadian city with their eyes on the Parisian multi-sport event.
In this regard, the prominent coach reminded ACN that the world list decides the 10 best-placed parajudoka who will participate in the event under the five rings -without repeating the country representatives-.
He also advanced the importance of Cuban participation in events planned for 2023 and early 2024, as the ranking will close on June 30, 2024.
We have to compete – he added – to keep improving on the list that will soon be updated and announced by the International Federation of Sports for the Blind (IBSA, for its acronym in English).
To compete in the cycle up to Paris 2024, IBISA has implemented since January 1 a new medical-functional evaluation system which now has only two classes: J1 (visual acuity less than or equal to LogMAR 2.6 in binocular vision) and J2 (visual acuity vision within a range of LogMAR 1.3 to 2.5 with binocular vision or with a binocular field of view 60 degrees or less in diameter).
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Until the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, B1 (blind), B2 (very visually impaired) and B3 (visually impaired) athletes competed equally in seven men’s and six women’s divisions.
