Havana, Apr 2 (ACN) Cuba closed today another day without a podium, on the second date of the Grand Slam in Antalya, Turkey, when its four judokas quickly said goodbye to the tournament mats.
Idelannis Gómez, in the 70 kilograms (kg) and Yasel Baeza (81 kg) debuted with victories by Wazari and Ippon against the Turkish Ninel Akdeniz and the Polish Damian Stepien, in that order.
But in the second round Gómez and Baeza fell by Ippon against the Austrian Bernadette Graf and the Uzbek Sharofiddin, respectively, according to the site www.ippon.org.
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Faster finished their performance (73 kg) and Héctor San Román (73 kg), who were surpassed in their first presentation by the Turkish Umalt Demirez and the Bulgarian Danislav Ivanov by Ippon and Wazari, in that order.
On the first day of the contest this Friday, Cubans Julio Delgado (60 kg), Orlando Polanco (66 kg), Aleanny Carbonell (48 kg), Melissa Hurtado (52 kg) and Arnaes Odelín (57 kg) were also left out of the podium.
Tomorrow, the last date of the Grand Slam, Cuba will be with Iván Silva (90 kg), Liester Cardona (100 kg), Andy Granda (over 100 kg) and Thalía Nariño (over 78 kg).
Silva will have to wait for the winner of the fight between the Turkish Can Guzel, Cardona will debut against the Bulgarian Kostadin Tsvetanov, Granda against the winner of the fight between the German Johannes Frey and the representative of the Netherlands Jelle Snippe, and Nariño against the Turkish Hilal Ozturk.
In Antalya, 525 judokas -312 men and 213 women- from 63 countries registered.
