Cuba finishes with no medals at Astana Judo Grand Slam

HAVANA, Cuba, May 13 (ACN) Cuba finished without medals at the Qazaqstan Barysy Grand Slam, losing on Sunday Idalis Ortiz in her second bout of the preliminaries of the Grand Slam of Judo, held in Astana, Kazakhstan.

According to the International Judo Federation website www.ijf.org, the Olympic (1-2-1) and world (2-2-4) champion in the over 78 kilograms (kg) category defeated Kazakhstan's Akerke Ramazanova by Ippon in the first bout, but then lost by the same way to Russia's Daria Vladimirova.

The other four Cubans competing in the event, Jonathan Charon (60 kg), Orlando Polanco (66 kg), Idelannis Carbonell (52 kg) and Maylin del Toro (63 kg), lost in their first bouts.

Cuban judokas, Ivan Silva (90 kg) and Andy Granda (+100 kg), were not registered as they will compete directly at the World Championship in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, from the 18th to the 20th.

The International Federation announces the ranking for the Olympic Games and the best placed for Cuba is Granda, who appears in fourth place, followed by Silva, seventh, and Idalis and Maylin, twenty-first, all of them in the qualification zone.

Further away are Polanco (39th), Charon (42nd) and Adelannis (58th), so they are more in need of good performances to continue adding as many points as possible in order to be included in the zone or get the continental quota, one per nation and man or woman.

The tournament involves 450 representatives -235 men and 215 women- from 84 countries, in search of points for the world ranking (WR) that defines the roster for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.