Bronze for Cuban Leandro Cordero in BRICS Sports Games

Cuban Leandro Cordero won the bronze medal in the double saber modality on the closing day of the wushu tournament of the BRICS 2024 Sports Games, held in this city in the Russian republic of Tatarstan.

 Leandro, a twenty-year-old who has been practicing the discipline for four seasons, went from less to more in each of the three presentations, achieving a score of 9,318 points in the last one to get on the podium.

 The competition was dominated by the Chinese Guanglin Yang with 9.8 and the Egyptian Amr Ibrahim Kasem, 9.585, in that order, representatives of two countries that are among the first in the event along with Russia, India and Iran, when the afternoon session remains. (of combat).

 In his two previous demonstrations, the young athlete from the Cuban wushu school achieved 8,620 points in free hands and 8,750 in saber.

 Cordero recalled that his first international participation was in the 2023 Alba Games in Venezuela, where he also debuted with a bronze medal.

 "However, this marks my beginning in the highest rank, it has a lot of meaning due to the level of the event, the favorites dominated, who today are at the head of this martial art, but in my case I surpassed myself and that is a great encouragement to continue trying to be better and better.”

 “”I am very grateful for the opportunity that was given to me for this competition and to all those who made it possible for it to take place, here we are the Cuba team proudly representing it,” he expressed.

 “We have enjoyed a great level, spectacular movements. I feel ready to learn much more and do better in the next event. My dreams are to learn more and more, because perfection does not exist, we only get closer to it,” he assured.

 His teammates are also very happy, as they were able to share a spectacular tournament with highly prestigious figures and at the same time improve their scores, such as Hiroshi Torres who surpassed nine points.

 The debutant Ricardo Ortega managed to reach that figure in his first appearance at an international competition, a result that encourages him to continue progressing in his native province of Camagüey, while René Álvarez did not achieve those qualifications, but he did raise his to a hopeful 8,902.

 Regarding the Hiroshi team, he pointed out the honor that this contest represented, “at the same time a challenge because we are facing great powers and we have tried to fight and fight, give our best to take advantage of this opportunity.”

 “Each international meeting is going to be very favorable to develop wushu in our country and I would call on young people to get closer to this ancient martial art,” he said.

 This Sunday he also had to activate the quartet of Cuban physical basketball players but fell in his second commitment in the tournament that is part of the 27 disciplines called for these Games.

 Brazil was the victimizer with a score of 42-19 (31-5 in the video game and 11-14 on the court).

 For this Monday they plan to compete in the double match against Bosnia Herzegovina and the United Arab Emirates, in that order.

The Cubans lost their debut this Saturday against Uzbekistan (28-17).