Cuba wins silver medal at mixed team judo competition in Rio de Janeiro

Cuba won the silver medal at the mixed team event of the Pan American and Oceania Judo Championships in Rio de Janeiro, losing to the hosts, after finishing fifth in the individual event, dominated by the local team, Brazil.

Rafael Manso, president and national commissioner, briefly informed from the venue that the Cuban judokas, who competed with their second figures, lost to the Brazilian favorites, on Sunday.

Manso added that the Cuban team in the individual tournament won one gold medal, six bronze medals and five fifth places -the bronze medals were not counted-.

The International Federation's website www.ijf.org announced on Saturday that Brazil, with 12 judocas, Cuba, with 10, and Argentina, with nine, would participate in the mixed team event, but finally only the host country's and Cuba's teams showed up.

Cuban entries were led by Andy Granda, along with Jonathan Charon, Orlando Polanco, Ivan Silva, Naysdel Cardoso and Jonathan Loynaz, Yainet Cardoso, Aleannis Carbonell, Maylin del Toro and Idalis Ortiz.

The divisions were 73, 90 and over 90 kilograms (kg) for men, and 57, 70 and over 70 kg for women.

Brazil (6-3-6) led the medal count, followed by Canada (2-4-2), Dominican Republic (2-0-3), Australia (1-1-0), Cuba (1-0-6), Puerto Rico (1-0-1) and Chile (1-0-0), the seven countries that won at least one of the 14 gold medals in contention.