Growing in his performances to attain a unique ending, allowed Cuban Diorges Escobar to proclaim himself champion of the men's all-around artistic gymnastics contest of the XXIV Central American and Caribbean Games.

There was tension, accelerated nerves, and confidence in the champion of this modality until the end. The Merliot Sports Complex was the venue for the event, and this was the experience of spectators there, mainly those from Cuba, including the president of the National Sports Institute, Osvaldo Vento.

The competition had a very good level, it was a nice experience, the champion assured, who accumulated 79,100 points to leave the Dominican Audrys Nin in silver (78,900).

The Colombian Dilan Jiménez (78,150) climbed to the lowest stepof the podium (78,150) out of a total of 17 contestants who began the competition, which included free hands, rings, pommel horse, parallel bars, vault horse, and high bar.

When I was behind in each exercise, I calculated the number of points of the people leading and how I could adapt to overcome them, confessed Escobar, a 20-year-old from Sancti Spíritus and a rookie in this type of event.

When I was finishig on the high bar I knew how much I had to do, he explained about the execution that catapulted him from fourth place to the top, and to the following win and recognition of his compatriots and rivals.

When asked by Prensa Latina, the most complete man in artistic gymnastics at the Games highlighted that he "feels completely happy" and thanked the family support.

Esequiel Varela, his coach stressed that at all times we had to wait for the end because the modalitiesin which Escobar performs best are the high bar and the rings.

According to the coach, this was not an unexpected result, since his pupil finished first on the qualifying day, and that’s how we needed to succeed, he added.

On the other hand, Varela announced that Cuba must achieve new medals in the individual events with Escobar himself and Pablo Pozo, ninth this Monday in the all-around.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff