Cuban archers to advance to quarterfinals in qualifying tournament in Colombia

HAVANA, Cuba, Apr 9 (ACN) Cuban archers Larissa Pagan and Javier Vega will try to advance today to the quarterfinals of the Continental Archery Qualifying Tournament of the Americas, held in Medellin, Colombia.

Pagan will be the rival of Canada's Virgine Chenier, seeking to reach the semifinals in an event that grants two individual tickets, in both genders, to the Olympic Games in Paris.

Cuban athlete, in the qualifying round, ranked seventh in the 70-meter double round of the recurve bow, with 618 points and then in the elimination matches she defeated 6-2 the Panamanian Gisela Cowan and 6-4 the Bolivian Ingrid Zurita, according to the official site of the competition.

In the case of her teammate Maydenia Sarduy, she was eliminated in the first match after losing 2-6 against Cowan (2-6), and with the same score Yailin Paredes lost to Bolivia's Mayte Camila Paredes.

In the men's match, Vega's opponent will be a top quality archer like the Colombian Santiago Arcila, so he will have to sharpen his sights to the maximum to be successful in this duel.

In order to reach the quarterfinals, Vega was left free in the first phase and then defeated Bolivian Alexander Mendoza and Ecuadorian Lester Ortegón with identical scores of 6-2.

Also for the Caribbean nation, Hugo Franco went straight to the round of 16, where he swept 6-0 against Venezuela's Victor Palacio, but in his next match he lost in a tiebreaker against Colombia's Andres Hernandez.

Finally, Juan Jose Santiesteban started his way with a 6-0 success against Guyanese Devin Permaul (6-0), to then lose 2-6 to Salvadoran Oscar Ticas (2-6), precisely the opponent who defeated him for the bronze medal in the South American Archery Championship of Marica, concluded a few days ago.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, the Pan American Archery Championship of Medellin will begin, also as an Olympic qualifier, although only for the best team, in both sexes, which has not yet secured its place in the summer event to be held in Paris.