Wrestling gladiators in action starting today at I Pan American Junior Games

Havana, December 1 (RHC)-- The gladiators participating in the wrestling tournament of the First Junior Pan American Games, to be held in Cali, Colombia, will start wrestling today until December 5.

Cuba will have six wrestlers on the mat, headed by Jeisser Sampson, 130 kilograms (kg), Pan American Junior champion in the Mexican city of Oaxtepec, last June.

Completing the list are Roismel Danger (60 kg), Yonat David Veliz (67 kg), Alain Andrés Moreno (77 kg), Yan Luis Algudín (87 kg) and Liober Betancourt (97 kg).

That competition began at 9:00 a.m. local time, the same here on the island, at the Miguel Calero Hockey Coliseum, which will be the stage for that combat sport.

In the classic modality, the eliminatory phase and the semifinals in each of the six divisions will be disputed this Wednesday, according to the official site of the event.

The Caribbean nation will attend the event with a full team of 18 gladiators, including six men and the same number of women in the freestyle category.

Luis de la Portilla, president of the Cuban Wrestling Federation, recently told ACN that both men and women can bring more than one gold medal to the delegation.

Among the grequistas, he mentioned Sampson as a serious contender for the title in his weight, backed by his golden metal in the continental event of that discipline.