Our Idalys Ortiz (+78 kilograms), the queen of Cuban judo in the last decade, heads the list of eight Cubans who will participate in the World Championship based in Budapest, Hungary, from June 6 to 13.
The group is completed by Arnaes Odelín (57 kg), Maylín del Toro (63 kg) and Kaliema Antomarchi (78 kg), for the females; Meanwhile, for the men, Orlando Polanco (66 kg), Magdiel Estrada (73 kg), Iván Silva (90 kg) and Andy Granda (+100 kg) will make the trip, all in search of points for the world ranking, in the face of the Tokyo Olympics.
The Candelarian, Olympic (1-1-1) and world (2-2-4) multi-medalist, is Cuba’s main hope of getting on the podium, and even of a possible title in the world event, in correspondence with its location in the list of the world, and being the only Latin American that occupies the first position (with 7,118 points). Only Granda (sixth) and Antomarchi (ninth) appear in the top 10.
So far, six of these judokas have reserved the Olympic passage, awaiting the closing of the classification on June 28; Meanwhile, Odelín and Polanco are lagging behind in their divisions, but with the ambition and the possibility of adding as many units to their personal account in Budapest.
Idalys will also go in search of his third crown, which has eluded him since his triumph in the 2014 Chelyabinsk edition, or at least the ninth medal in these races. A revenge against the Japanese Akira Sone is also likely, her almost certain great stumbling block in Tokyo, the fourth summer appointment of the London’12 champion.
The Hungarian World Cup is the perfect preview of an Olympic tournament that promises many emotions, and will feature some 700 judokas from 127 countries.
