Silva and la Cruz best sportspeople in Cuba in 2017. Autor: Durán Monje Publicado: 12/12/2017 | 12:02 pm
The best athletes and sports this year were announced in Cuba, in a press conference held at Havana’s Sport City Center, this Monday morning.
The most outstanding team were the Domadores de Cuba, who finished in second position in the 7th World Series Boxing (WSB) tournament, squad with most accumulatedvictories (43 out of 61).
The bestteam sportswas the volleyball, among others achievements, this year it won two medals in World Championships - silver in the U-21 and bronze in the U-23 men, in addition to the promising results obtained by the couples of the Beach Volleyball.
The national boxing teamperformance was also recognized, designated as the best individual sport, based not only on the WSBresults, but the five gold and two silver medals won by their boxers in the World Championship held in Hamburg, Germany.
The best individual athetes were Yarisley Silva and Julio César La Cruz. The pole vaulter fromgot the bronze medal in London World Championship and won a Diamond League stageand, the boxer becamea World Champion (81 kg)this year.
The team sports features the beach volleyball player Lidianny Echevarría and the baseball outfielder Alfredo Despaigne.
Andy Cruz was therookie of the year this season, in which he became not only world champion, but also remained undefeated in 18 matches.
Also the bestof the year were: Erislandy Savón, Lázaro Álvarez, Yosvany Veitía, Johanys Argilagos and Roniel Iglesias (boxing), Arlenis Sierra and Marlies Mejías (cycling), Manrique Larduet (gymnastics), Ángel Fournier (rowing) and Oscar Pino (wrestling).
Alsoreceived special mentions: Serguey Torres and Fernando D. Jorge (canoeing), Kaliema Antomarchi, Idalys Ortiz and Alex García (judo), as well as Yowlys Bonne and Alejandro Valdés (wrestling).
The Juniors were, Marileysis Duarthe and Yordan Días were the best in the individual section for women and men, respectively.
Others were: Lienna de la Caridad Montero and Yudari Sánchez (women’sstruggle), Miguel Ángel López, Miguel David Gutiérrez, Adrián Goide, Osniel Melgarejo and Javier Concepción (volleyball), José Ramón Pelier, Liliana Naranjo and Jan Carlos Núñez (canoeing).
Suslaydis Girat (athletics) was the best athlete in the disability sports in which there were also others such as Omara Durand, Luis Felipe Gutierrez, Leonardo Diaz, Sain Leinier and Ernesto Blanco, along with taekwondo athlete Yandri Larrondo and Lilisbet Rodríguez, the swimmers Lorenzo Pérez and Juan Castillo, the weightlifters Oniger Drake and Leydi Rodríguez and the baseball player Maikel Merino.
The best national referee was Raúl Rojas (athletics) as well as Jorge Niebla (baseball) but internationally.
Ceidel Torreswas selected as the best Physical Education instructor, Hamed Labrador was the best activist, and finally Erick Hernandez "dominated" the special sports.
Translated by ESTI
