Armando Johnson, director of the Cuba team to the World Baseball Classic

Havana, September 8 (RHC)-- The Cuban Baseball Federation (FCB) announced Wednesday that Armando Johnson will be the director of the team that will face the V World Baseball Classic in March 2023.

The entity's official statement added that the experienced coach will guide the island's senior squads in top-level events until 2024, as part of "the new strategy for the development of our sport."

"The decision involved in-depth analysis of the professional competencies of each candidate to occupy that responsibility, including those resulting from the follow-up assigned to them during the 61st National Baseball Series and their international performances," explains the note disclosed on the digital site in Jit.

It also highlights that "Johnson accumulates a long and fruitful trajectory as a mentor" and "with the Cuban team in minor categories" before mentioning the silver medal he won a few weeks ago in the Pan American U-23 competition, held in Aguascalientes, Mexico.

In World Classics (WBC), the largest Antillean island has as its main achievement the second place reached in the founding edition in 2006, when it lost 6-10 in the dispute for the crown against Japan.

The Cuban team was placed in Group A of the next WBC, to be held at the Intercontinental Stadium in Taichung, Taipei, China, from March 9 to 13 of next year.

The team will fight for one of the two tickets to the quarterfinals against the teams of Italy, the Netherlands, the local team and another yet to be defined, which will come out of the pending qualifying tournaments.

The FCB also made it official that Alain Alvarez will be in charge of the Antillean under-23 team that will soon participate in the universal program of the category in Taipei, China.