Cuba wins two gold medals in fifth day of Pan Am Games

HAVANA, Cuba, Jul 16 (acn) The rower Angel Fournier and gymnast Manrique Larduet won gold medals in the most outstanding performances by Cuba during the fifth day of the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games.

At the Royal Canadian Henley Rowing Course, Fournier stopped the clocks in 7: 51.39 minutes to be crowned in the men's single sculls event, followed by host Rob Gibson (7: 57.94) and Argentine Brian Rosso (8: 01.38).

The best Cuban rower of the moment thus earned his second title in the great continental contest of the Canadian city, after winning in previous days along with Eduardo Rubio the double sculls event, in addition to achieve another silver medal in the quadruple sculls.

In turn, Larduet closed in style the return of Cuba to the Pan American podium of artistic gymnastics by winning the gold medal in the vault event with a score of 15.125 points, ahead of American Donnell Whittenburg (14,962) and Brazilian Caio Souza (14,925).

Larduet reached a silver medal in parallel bars with 15,650 units, surpassed only by Colombian Jossimar Calvo (15,700), and finished fourth in the horizontal bar to complete a superb performance that also included a silver medal in the all-around event and a bronze medal in the rings.

The Greco-Roman wrestling provided the other two medals won by Cuba on Wednesday at the Games, through Miguel Martinez and Alan Vera.

Martinez finished third in the 66 kg division by beating 6-0 Colombian Alexis Cuero, while his compatriot Vera defeated 8-0 Honduran Oscar Martinez in the fight for the bronze medal in the 85 kilos.

Meanwhile, the Olympic champion Leuris Pupo was below expectations when finishing fourth in the men's 25 meters rapid fire pistol, event won by American Brad Balsley.

In the women's sector, Claudia Hernandez was the only Cuban present in the final of the 25 meters fire pistol, where she was relegated to eighth seat, while her teammate Laina Pérez finished ninth in the qualifying round.

Cuban weightlifters Alejandro Cisneros and Asniel Rodriguez had modest performances by ending fifth and sixth respectively in the 105 kg division, event won by Venezuelan Jesus Gonzalez.

Although they enjoyed the merit to be included in the final of their respective events, the Cuban swimmers Armando Barrera and Elisbet Gámez had to settle for the eighth spot in the 200 meters men's backstroke and women's freestyle, respectively.

The Cuban baseball team secured its ticket to the semifinals by defeating 9-5 the Dominican Republic, to be ratified in fourth place of the standings with a record of three wins and two losses, behind Canada (4 -0), Puerto Rico (3-1) and USA (3-1).

In the women's tournament of beach volleyball the Cuban duo of Lianma Flores and Liela Martinez remained unbeaten by defeating 2-1 (19-21, 21-15 and 15-13) Argentine duo made up by Ana Gallay and Georgina Klug.

Also, the Cuban men´s water polo team finished seventh by beating 13-6 Ecuador, while in the women's sector of the field tournament, the Caribbean squad lost 2-3 to Uruguay.

The Cuban delegation closed the fifth day of competitions in fourth seat of the standing with 16 gold, 12 silver and 18 bronze medals in list headed by Canada (33-30-19).