Havana, Apr 2 (ACN) Brazil leads the Gand Slam in Antalya, Turkey, with one gold, one silver and two bronze medals, a contest in which Cuba has not been able to get on the podium, after two days of action of nine of the 13 registered judokas.
Following the Brazilian men’s and women’s teams are France (1-1-1), Mongolia (1-1-0), Georgia (1-1-0), Hungary (1-1-0), Moldova (1- 0-0), Canada (1-0-0), Great Britain (1-0-0) and Chinese Taipei (1-0-0), the nine countries with gold medals.
According to the site www.ippon.org, nine other nations have achieved a podium in the tournament that brings together 525 judokas -312 men and 213 women- from 63 countries.
Read: Another day without a podium for Cuba in the Gand Slam of judo in Turkey
The champions this Saturday were the Georgian Giorgi Terashvili, in the 73 kilograms (kg), the Brazilian Guilherme Schimidt (81 kg), the British Luci Renshall (63 kg) and the French Marie Eve Gahie (70 kg).
Today Cuba had four judokas and those who advanced the most were Idelannis Gómez (70 kg) and Yasel Baeza (81 kg) who 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.
Magdiel Estrada (73 kg) and Héctor San Román (73 kg) concluded their performance faster, 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 have good medal chances 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.
