Second spot in Toronto Pan Am games to be highly contested, say officials

TORONTO, Canada, Jul 9 (acn) The hard-fought fight for the second seat of the 17th Pan American Games was ratified in this city by the heads of mission of Cuba, Brazil and Canada.

Cuban Antonio Becali, president of the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation, Brazilian Bernard Rajzman and the host Curt Harnett confirmed the purpose of finishing second by countries in a conference which was also attended by their American counterpart Alan Ashley.

For Cuba it is important to keep the second historical place we have achieved since Cali 71, and for that we have undergone a very good preparation, and the Veracruz 2014 Central American and Caribbean Games were of vital importance, said Becali.

Cuba attends this tournament with a delegation of 459 athletes whose age average is under 25 years and was described by its manager as a mixture of youth and experience, where 36.8 percent of its members already participated in previous continental games.

Rajzman said the delegation he leads is the largest one of his country away from home, with 590 competitors, and also covets one of the leading seats to reward the worked developed by the South American athletes.

We do not have all our top-level athletes, but we bring very good competitors and we made a very hard work. We import 50 foreign coaches and we expect a huge improvement in the result, he added after ratifying they expect to exceed the total of 140 medals they reached in Guadalajara 2011.

Harnett was emphatic in saying that this is now or never for Canadian athletes, and cataloged of pride and commitment to wear the maple leaf on their uniforms and knowing they will be supported by the fans at each facility.

United States, which everyone recognizes as the undisputed winner, recognized the importance of the event prior to the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro 2016, and assured that its athletes will experience wonderful things and have the opportunity to prove themselves in midst of high rank.

The subject of major figures in each of these four teams was highlighted in another moment of the dialogue, also marked by the recognition to the baseball tradition of Cuba , which also stressed its strength in combat sports, athletics, canoeing and rowing.