If for a long time it was taken for granted that Cuba would occupy first place in any edition of the Central American and Caribbean Games, today the reality is that even finishing second in the overall medal table in San Salvador 2023 is seen as an important challenge.
To the decline of Cuban sports, caused mainly by the economic crisis that forces support to be cut and causes desertions, is added the proliferation of events and sports in which the largest of the Antilles does not seriously venture, and the cancellation of others in which we had great possibilities of the maximum prize, as was the case of the water polo for ladies and other canoeing events, due to lack of quorum.
Therefore, with equal parts optimism and realism, it is recognized that today we are incapable of recovering the regional supremacy that we have defended for decades because Mexico competes in everything, but it is confident that it will be able to finish ahead of Colombia and Venezuela, the other two big of the region that we will face from June 23 to July 8.
In fact, Mexico has a forecast of reaching 105 gold medals, while in Havana they calculated that their athletes can hang between 70 and 80 medals of this metal, since of the 504 athletes summoned now only a hundred competed in Barranquilla 2018, with an average of 25 years, to participate in 365 tests of 36 disciplines, of more than 440 and 54 that appear in the official program.
To maintain the second overall position, the Cuban delegation must meet the forecasts in important disciplines such as boxing, wrestling, athletics, rowing-canoeing and judo, in theory the greatest contributors to the final harvest.
In the case of the so-called Flagship, the reduction of men’s categories to only seven (in keeping with the Olympic program) diminishes possibilities, in addition to the fact that we are going with a team with five rookies and there are several talents in the region in different categories.
Wrestling should comfortably dominate the masculine modalities and contribute some gold in the feminine, while athletics, rowing-canoeing and judo should have the greatest chances of predominance, with a high-level entourage of both sexes.
As for collective sports, which contribute little in the battle for the final position but are always attractive, handball, men’s indoor and beach volleyball, softball and field hockey are the ones with the best chances of winning, but they will still have to be fully used.
Baseball and basketball have good chances of reaching the podium, but finishing first would be surprising.
In any case, I think that if in Barranquilla Colombia could not move us to the third box acting as a local, it should not happen in El Salvador.
2023-06-22 23:28:34
#Cuba #challenge #San #Salvador
