Cuban Judo Classifies Nine Athletes for Olympic Games

Cuban judo already has nine athletes who have classified for the Olympic Games, confirmed the International Judo Federation here Tuesday. Five men and four women are classified to represent the biggest of the Antillean islands in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from August 5 to 21, after the Grand Prix of Almaty, Kazahstan, the last open tournament of the year's season, has recently concluded.

The women's delegation is headed by the 2012 Olympic Champion in the plus 78 kilogram category, Idalis Ortiz. The list is completed with Dayaris Mestre (48 kg), Maricet Espinosa (63), and Yalennis Castillo (78) after Castillo displaced her teammate Onix Cortes to represent Cuba, because Castillo had a bigger total of points after competitions were over.

Ortiz closed the Cuban female judokas performance in Almaty with a victory, and she consolidated in the 2nd place of the world ranking in her category, after the undefeated Chinese jodoka Song Yu. In the male competition, Cuba will be represented by Iván Silva, 2012 Olympic silver medal Asley Gonzalez (90), Magdiel Estrada (73), José Armenteros (100) and Alex García (over 100).

This way, Cuba turned into the ninth country that more judocas will present in Rio de Janeiro, list headed by Japan, France and the head office, Brazil, all with 14 representatives.

The Grand Prix of Almaty constituted the last tournament clasificatorio with open character, since the next contest punctuable" World Judo Master's degree in Guadalajara, Mexico "will be an event for invitation between May 27 and 29, which will not affect the current position of the classified ones.