Cuban gymnastics with outstanding performance in San Salvador

Those who trusted the young Cuban team have plenty of reasons to celebrate their triumphs, such as Diorges Escobar's new title at the closing event of the artistic gymnastics of the XXIV Central American and Caribbean Games.

The brand new winner of the all-around event once again touched perfection in one of his favorite competitions, the high bar, and received a score of 13,800 points and ended with style at the room set up in the Merliot Sports Center, with stands filled every day.

This time, he had the second-to-last turn among the eight finalists, behind the other Cuban, Pablo Harold Pozo, who made a mistake in one of the executions, which took him out of the fight for the medals.

It was then up to Diorges to pursue the dreamed gold. "The truth is I prepared a lot for the high bar, I knew I could do it and it came out," confessed the man from Sancti Spiritus shortly after the victory, with the economy of words that characterize him when "dealing" with the media.

"We all wanted to win. The competition was hard and now I have to continue working. I have much more to show, because we are going to increase the difficulty of all the exercises to go stronger to the world competition and the Pan-American games,” said the boy who will celebrate his 21^st birthday next August.

The same satisfaction was shown by his coach Esequiel Varela, who confirmed the strategy to modifying the degree of difficulty of Diorges' routines from now on.

“We need to improve the degree of difficulty to be able to dream of greater results. We are not far from that aspiration and we know that it can be achieved," said the coach with almost two decades of experience, already thinking about the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago de Chile.

In addition to Diorges' two titles, the Cubans return home with the silver medal in the team all-around and the silver medals of Alejandro de la Cruz in rings, Yohendry Villaverde in vault and Pablo Harold in parallel bars.

The team was completed by José Carlos Escandón and they all agree that the best thing here was the unity and sense of belonging of a collective that was almost entirely renewed compared to the previous cycle, a detail that increases the value of the medals earned.

Among women, the story was pretty much different, but performances were what we expected. The team under the guidance of trainer Osniel Blanco arrived with almost no prior training as injuries hampered the girls’ chances.

Isaumy Perera, Sabrina Cardero, Lauren Ducca and Angelissa Ponce have the talent and youth to imitate their men peers, but they need more time to achieve it.

Mexico swept the women's tournament with five titles, which added to the three titles won by men allowed it to dominate the sport. Mexican also won two silver and three bronze medals. Cuba ended in second place with 2-4-0 and Panama in third with a 1-3-2 record.

Translated by Sergio A: Paneque Díaz / CubaSí Translation Staff