Nine Cuban judokas will debut in the Lima Pan-Am Championship

HAVANA, Cuba, Apr 15 (ACN) Cuba will debut today with nine judokas in the first day of the senior individual tournament of the Pan American and Oceania Championships, to be held until tomorrow in Lima, Peru.

According to the draw published on the website of the International Federation www.ijf.org , of the 10 Cubans scheduled for this first day with action in the 48, 52, 57 and 63 kilograms (kg) for women, and the 60, 66 and 73 kg for men, one of the 63 does not appear among the 16 drawn.

Venessa Godínez (48 kg) will have as her first opponent the Argentinean Keisy Perafan, Melissa Hurtado (52 kg) will open against the Peruvian Mirian Flores and Arnaes Odelín (57 kg) will have to wait for the winner between the Dominican Clara Barinas and the Chilean Sasha Muñoz.

Completing the women's list is Yusmari Reyes (63 kg), who will start against American Sara Golden, while Thailen Castillo, one of the 18 judoka announced to travel to Lima, is absent from the list.

The men who will take the tatamis are Danny Porte and Julio Delgado (60 kg) and will have as first opponents the Ecuadorian Bryan Garboa and the Venezuelan Ivan Salas, respectively.

Orlando Polanco (66 kg) and Magdiel Estrada and Héctor San Román (73 kg), who will fight Ecuador's Juan Ayala, Panama's Ronal González and Australia's Jake Bensted, in that order, will also be looking for victories.

Tomorrow, Saturday, the last day of the individual, will be the day with the best medal possibilities for Cuba with Idelannis Gómez (70 kg), Madelines Gorguet (78 kg) and Thalia Nariño and Naomis Elizardo (+78 kg).

The mixed team tournament is scheduled for Sunday, with action in the 57, 70, +70 (f), 73, 90 and +90 kg (m).

The Lima competition is the first of four that will award points to qualify for the Pan American Games of Santiago de Chile 2023, and according to www.ijf.org, 217 judoists will participate - 121 men and 96 women - from 24 countries, under the strict compliance of sanitary measures by the COVID-19.

Brazil, with 502 medals, divided into 182 gold, 153 silver and 167 bronze, leads the all-time Pan American Championships medal count, followed by Cuba (383/182-86-115) and the United States (319/71-86-162), respectively.