Cuban judo opens its international participation in the Grand Slam, in France, on February 5 and 6. This is the most prestigious competition on the circuit in this category, won seven times by Idalis Ortiz, who will not compete this year because she will begin her preparation in Cuba after her vacation.
Idalis (over 78 kg), gold in London-2012, silver in Rio de Janeiro-2016 and Tokyo-2020, bronze in Beijing-2008 and eleventh in the ranking of the world, with 2,610 points, will later join the training sessions on French soil, he confirmed to Granma the national commissioner, Rafael Manso. «Kaliema Antomarchi (78) and Magdiel Estrada (73) will do the same. Cuba will present six competitors in Paris, some very young and others already established, who will train for two months alongside the French pre-selection.
The Villa de Paris this year will bring together about 400 judokas from 60 countries. In 2019, Ortiz won the only gold for Cuba, defeating the Azerbaijani Iryna Kindzerska and the Japanese Akira Sone, third then and winner of the artemiseña in Tokyo-2020, who occupies the sixth place in the world list, with 3,200 units, while Kindzerska (2,570), bronze in the Japanese capital, is in 12th place, a relationship led by the French Romane Dicko (5,550), winner of the Parisian fair in 2020.
The young athletes who will travel to France are Thalía Nariño (over 78 kg), junior Pan American gold medalist; Idelanis Gómez (70), silver in that fight; Melissa Hurtado (52), bronze in the Junior World Cup, and Aliannis Carbonell (48) joins the national team. Among the men, the inexperienced Yaser Baeza (81 kg), Julio César Delgado (60) and Héctor Lázaro San Román (73 kg), will work together with Iván Silva (90), Andy Granda (over 100) and Orlando Polanco (60 ).
The main competitions of the year are the Pan American Championship, in Lima, in April, and the World Cup, in Uzbekistan, with steps through the Grand Slams of Israel, Georgia and Turkey,
