Cuba gets ready for baseball pre-Olympic tournament

Cuba is getting ready for what will be its test in baseball, with the penultimate opportunity to participate in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in a very difficult tournament to be held in Arizona, USA, in March.

The Cuban shortlisted team start training as of Monday at Havana's Latinoamericano Stadium with Miguel Borroto, runnerup with Camagüey's Bulls during the 59th National Baseball Series.

Beyond the preparation competitions that may be carried out against a local Sub23 team that will go to the Pan-American Games in Honduras and Nicaragua, Cuban baseball players must improve to stand out in the Arizona tournament.

Without relevant international results in recent times -debacles in the Lima 2019 Pan-American Games and the 2019 Premier 12 Baseball Tournament-, Cuba must play with Venezuela, Canada and Colombia in group B of the pre-Olympic tournament in March.

The first two of each series will go to the Super Round, in which only the winner will get a direct ticket to the Tokyo Olympics. However, the second and third places will have another opportunity.

The teams that reach those positions will participate in the China Taipei competition to be held from April 1 to 5, where they will compete against the Netherlands, People's Republic of China, Australia and the hosts for the last place towards the Tokyo Olympics.