The Cubans won a medal of each color on the second day of the Lima 2023 Pan-American Judo Open, with which all the representatives of the Island managed to get on the podium.
Maikel MKencie was crowned in the 81 kg division, Kaliema Antomarchi got the subtitle in the 78 kg and Liester Cardona was bronze in the 100 kg.
MKencie won all three of her bouts by ippon: First he dominated the Haitian Wood-Waldy Petit-Frere, then the Salvadoran Gustavo López and finally the Brazilian Lincoln Neves.
Kaliema Antomarchi defeated the representative of Puerto Rico, Sairy Colón, by ippon in just a minute and a half of combat. In the final she had to face the Brazilian Samanta Soares.
The 54th in the International Judo Federation ranking supported with two shidos against the Cuban and ended up winning by hansoku-make.
Liester Cardona got off on the wrong foot in the quarterfinals against Canadian Benjamin Kendrick, who beat him by ippon in just 44 seconds of combat.
He then took it out on Bahamian Alex Strachan in the play-offs, knocking him out with 10 seconds left in regulation time.
This gave him the opportunity to fight for the bronze medal against the American LA Smith, whom he also defeated by ippon.
With that performance, Cuba added three gold medals, one silver and one bronze, and finished in third place in the tournament behind Peru (3-4-2) and Brazil (3-2-2).
