Idalys world runner-up; Cuba finishes eighth

September 27, 2018

Cuba finished in eighth place at the World Judo Championship that concluded this Wednesday in Baku, the Azerbaijani capital, thanks to the performance of artemiseña Idalys Ortiz, who won the silver medal in the 78 kg division.

In her first and second matches of the competitive day, Idalys defeated South Korean Minjeong Kim and Chinese Yan Wang by ippon, respectively, to advance to the quarterfinals. There she defeated Croatian Ivana Maranic and in the semifinals Maria Altheman, from Brazil, to subsequently fall to Japanese Sarah Asahina in the dispute for gold. In this way, Ortiz was unable to repeat the gold medals she won at events of this magnitude held in Rio de Janeiro 2013 and Cheliabinsk 2014.

This Wednesday also took to the mat the Antillean representative Andy Granda (100 kg), but was defeated in his second match by Mongolian Duurenbayar Ulziibayar. Even so, Granda managed to add 320 points to his ranking, as he placed among the sixteen best in his category.

In general, the most notable aspect of the Caribbean Island at the event were the silver medals of Ortiz and Iván Silva (90 kg), although Maylín del Toro (63 kg) with her fifth place and villaclareño Asley González (90 kg) in seventh place also achieved significant performances. The latter suffered a biceps femoris fracture that prevented him from advancing in pursuit of a better performance in the competition.

With these results, the Greater Antilles placed itself in eighth place by countries in the overall medal count, preceded by Japan (7 golds, 5 silvers and 4 bronzes), South Korea (2-0-1), France (1-1-2), Georgia (1-1-1), Iran (1-0-1), Ukraine (1-0-1) and Spain (1-0-0), in that order, according to what the official website of the International Judo Federation reflects.

Melissa Hurtado, one of the home country athletes present at the sporting event in Baku, commented to Granma, through social networks, that now the goal is to continue improving each day and that those on the Island should focus on upcoming competitions such as the Grand Prix in Cancún, next October, the Lima 2019 Pan American Games and the Olympic Games that will be held in Tokyo in the year 2020.