The aspirations for Cuba to win the gold medal in the XXI Giraldilla International Badminton Tournament depended on what Taymara Oropesa and Yeily Ortiz, the most experienced of the “armada”, could do in the women’s doubles specialty.
The young women fulfilled the pre-competition forecasts and won the gold medal this Sunday at the Ciudad Deportiva Coliseum, in Havana, by beating the Guatemalan pair of sisters Mariana and Alejandra Paiz in the final.
The duel ended ahead of schedule, as Alejandra injured one of her shoulders, when the first set it was 4-1 in favor of the Cubans, so it could not continue in the competition. With this success, the Cuban duet secured 1,700 points for the ranking World Cup and retains options to qualify for the Pan American Games in Santiago de Chile-2023.
Yeily took home another medal (bronze) at the single, by getting wins against the Canadian Aarushi Castillo and against Alejandra Paiz. She only lost in the semifinals against the Bulgarian Hristomira Popovska, who was ultimately crowned champion among the ladies, with a victory against the Peruvian Inés Castillo (21-16, 16-21 and 22-20).
Surprising was the other bronze award that Cuba reached in the mixed doubles branch. Diosbel Tamayo and Naybis Reyes showed that they can be protagonists at an international level. Only in the semifinals did the Guatemalan duet, made up of Christopher Martínez and Mariana Paiz, cut short their dream of going to the final. The Central Americans lost in the final against the Bulgarians Iliyan Stoynov and Hristomira Popovska (21-14 and 21-19).
Among the men, in singles, the Indonesian Halim As Sidiq won the trophy, who defeated his countryman Nurhabibu Mayang (21-15, 11-21 and 21-17). In doubles between men, the couple made up of English Kelvin Koon Fung and Jamaican Samuel O’Brien triumphed, superior to Croatians Aria Dinata and Filip Spoljarec.
