Santiago is Cuba in Krasnoyarsk

Krasnoyarsk, the third-largest city in Russian Siberia, will soon host, as it has done uninterruptedly since 1990, one of the world's strongest freestyle wrestling tournaments. The Ivan Yarygin International Cup will begin this Thursday and conclude on Sunday, and there Cuban wrestling will have its first international competition in 2026, with the participation of two of its athletes.

Santiago natives Vladimir Vila (57 kg) and Geannis Garzón (79 kg) are our country's only representatives at the Russian event. According to the competition schedule, the first to step onto the mat at the Ivan Yarygin Sports Palace will be Vila on opening day—that day will also feature competition in the 61 kg and 70 kg men's divisions—and Garzón will compete on Friday.

Vladimir will make his debut in this competition, but Geannis participated in the 2025 edition and was eliminated after losing in his first outing to local wrestler Albik Petrosyan in the 74 kg category. At that time, he was accompanied by Havana's Jorge Douglas Jiménez and the indomitable Arturo Silot.

The son of Geandry Garzón, a four-time world medalist, will attempt to match or surpass his runner-up finish at the Dmitry Korkin International Memorial, another high-level Russian competition held in November 2025 in Yakutsk. Similarly, last year he earned silver and bronze medals at the Junior Pan American Games in Asunción and the Under-23 World Championship in Novi Sad, respectively.

Vila, for his part, will compete in Krasnoyarsk with the gold medal won at the youth multi-sport event in Asunción as his most relevant performance outside Cuba.

According to some reports from media in the host country, the Ivan Yarygin Cup, which honors the two-time Olympic champion at Munich 1972 and Montreal 1976, will feature more than 215 male and female wrestlers from 20 nations, including Mongolia—which has the largest delegation among foreign teams—Brazil, Cuba, North Korea, Egypt, Turkey, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, and Kazakhstan.

The best foreign freestyle wrestler will receive a cash prize from the Roscongress Foundation, which has been a tournament partner for more than five years.

After searching the website of the Russian Wrestling Federation and other digital sites in that country, we learned that two years ago, Havana's Osmani Diversent attended the Ivan Yarygin Cup and stumbled in his debut against host Bashir Magomedov. In the 2019 version, the best-placed were Franklin Marén, Christian Solenzal, and Silot, with all three finishing in fifth place, and in 2018 a trio of women won bronze medals: Mayabeque's Lianna de la Caridad Montero, Guantánamo's Yaquelín Estornell, and Ciego de Ávila's Yudaris Sánchez.