Sports promotion takes center stage at regional event

ANA, Cuba, Jun 15 (ACN) Delegates to the 7th meeting of Cubans living in Latin America and the Caribbean, organized in the Dominican Republic, dedicated their Sunday session to the promotion of the development of sports in Cuba.

Pedro Zamora, a wrestling coach based in that country, gave details about the progress of sports practice in Cuba and the cooperation with the Dominican Republic in this field with more than 800 trainers and other specialists between 1994 and 2000 alone who offered assistance in soccer, athletics, handball and artistic gymnastics, among other disciplines.

However, he remarked, the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the world economic crisis, as well as other objective and subjective causes, have had a negative impact on Cuban collaboration, although new ways of cooperation are under study.

He shared anecdotes of Cuban baseball players who settled in the Dominican Republic and other countries to try to make it to the Major Leagues, but those were only empty promises that others should not be led into believing.

“In some countries they remain linked to sports thanks of the prestige they earned in Cuba, but it’s not like that everywhere”, he warned.

On his end, Isaac Ogando, president of Unión Deportiva in Bayaguana, cradle of sports in the Dominican Republic, thanked Cuba for its solidarity with the training of local athletes, who have won many medals at international level as a result.

Ana Teresita Fraga, General Director of Consular Affairs and Services to Cubans Living Abroad of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, announced that Havana will host the XI International Convention of Physical Activity and Sports on November 10 to 14 this year.