Cuban Olympic champions today in Canoe Sprint World Championships

HAVANA, Cuba, Sep 16 (ACN) The Cubans Serguei Torres and Fernando Dayán Jorge, Olympic champions of Tokyo 2020, will compete today in the two-seater canoe (C-2) at 1,000 meters at the World Championships, held until Sunday in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The Cuban pair, multi medalist in cups and competitions around the world, will be in action in lane five of the first heat, alongside Uganda, Spain, China and Canada.

The first three of every heat will be in the final, a goal they must reach to defend their best Olympic time (3:24.995 minutes), good enough to win the gold medal in Tokyo 2020 and even better than the best result of a world champion (3:40.55 m), held by a Chinese pair, and the best achieved in a world cup (3:25.091 m), boasted by German canoeists.

Torres and Jorge will also try to win a medal in the 500m, a distance that will be part of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Cuba also participates with another three canoeists who competed in Tokyo, namely José Ramón Pelier, Yarisleidis Cirilo and Katherin Nuevo.

Pelier will compete in the C-1 to 1,000 meters on Thursday and 500 meters (Friday), whereas Cirilo will row several times, in the C-2 to 500 with Nuevo (Thursday) and 200 (Friday), and in the C-1 to 200 (Friday) and 5,000 meters (Sunday).