The VI Pan American Table Tennis Championship was satisfactory for Cuba, which also got good grades as a host, except for a electrical problem on the second day of competitions.

This time it was men who performed best, winning a ticket to the next World Championship, the main objective of our team in this highest continental level competition.

The positions for next year's Olympic event brought together the best players in the region in Havana, and that set the bar high for Cubans.

However, Jorge Moisés Campos, Andy Pereira, Adrián Pérez and Eday Gómez managed to sneak themselves among the top six teams and thus ensure their presence in the world championship.

Daniela Fonseca, Lizdainet Rodríguez, Estela Crespo, and Rosalba Aguiar were close, but the little experience of the latter two could not make up for the contribution of Idalis Lovet, who this time couldn’t make it to the Cuban National team in the competition played in the wards 20 and 21 of Expocuba, she might go into permanent retirement.

For the boys, especially newbies Adrián and Eday, the competition against the elite in next year's world championship in Busan, South Korea will be very important.

In all cases, these are the athletes that will represent us in the upcoming Pan American Games in Santiago de Chile 2023, so this training will be important when facing practically the same rivals, all of them of Asian origin competing for the United States and Canada, in addition to the stars of Puerto Rico and Brazil.

The contest was particularly honored by the Puerto Rican Adriana Díaz, number 13 in the world ranking, and the Brazilian Hugo Calderano, number five in the universal ranking and the continent's top historical winner.

With them in the competition it was very difficult to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, but on Chilean soil they will no longer count for the classification and that gives a light of hope.

Of course, I don't forget the third place in the mixed doubles of the Olympians Daniela and Moisés, the only medal we achieved in the event, but it was more important to obtain the qualifications for the World Cup. However, congratulations to this duo, which seems like our best title option in Santiago 2023.

By the way, the host country showed serious work in both sexes in Havana (gold medals in the men's and mixed doubles, in addition to winning silver in the men's individual competition) and looks like another difficult rival back in their turf before their crowd on October 29 - November 5, where once again the low positions that Cubans occupy in the world ranking will bring them difficult crosses.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff