# Manrique and Randy silenced the Golden Gate

**Date:** 07/23/2018

The artistic gymnastics hall at Puerta de Oro has undoubtedly been one of the most crowded venues at these Central American and Caribbean Games and everyone came there to cheer for their idol Josymar Calvo, but the celebration had a Cuban flavor.

Manrique Larduet and Randy Lerú were in charge of silencing the stands, or rather turning them to their side because the knowledgeable audience rewards talent and both of them showed plenty of it.

"I started a bit tired because we've been here training for seven days without rest, on the pommel horse I was a little nervous but confident that I had prepared everything well... and that's why my Santiago blood came out and I came through to maintain my title that I couldn't lose," confessed Manrique, winner of the individual all-around with 84,800 points.

The score was by far the highest among all the finalists and it was enough for him to maintain a title that has been his for four years, although this time with the joy that his teammate Lerú escorted him (81,050).

Since Maracaibo 1998, Cubans had not achieved a 1-2 in this type of competition, something that adds importance to what was now achieved by the students of Carlos Gil, who two days ago saw their first gold prediction in team competition fall apart.

"This is a result I had been waiting a long time for, I have worked hard for this, and I tell everyone to expect a lot from Manrique and from me for what's left," declared Lerú, who now enjoys his first major victory.

The medals won this Sunday are added to the team silver won last Friday, when there was more than one non-competitive factor that influenced that outcome.

"Because of what happened in the team competition we knew that here we had to do this difficulty to win it, that's the only thing that was going to give us the victory. This is the beginning of a new cycle that we're starting better than the last one and there will be more," said Gil about what happened before, still with tremendous emotion from the success.

In any case, what matters is that preparation and talent prevail to make goals a reality, and this is only halfway through because all the apparatus finals are still to come and surely several titles will be coming.

To this excellent result are added the titles as women's team and individual of Marcia Vidiaux in the all-around.

The first individual finals will be held this Monday and will be the floor exercises, the pommel horse and the rings for the men, and the vault and uneven bars for the girls.