Monday was a good day for Cuba in Barranquilla 2018 (+Photos)

HAVANA, Cuba, Jul 31 (ACN) Cuba finished its performance last Monday in the 23rd Central American and Caribbean Games of Barranquilla, as main stage, and the co-hosts cities of Cali and Bogota, with balance of nine gold, five silver and eight bronze medals.
That result allowed them to appear only one title shy from Colombia, which remains second in the standings.
The highlight of this twelfth day of competitions, was without doubt the crown achieved by Mijain Lopez, triple Olympic monarch and five-time world champion in the 130 kilograms of Greco-Roman wrestling, who - as expected – easily beat his rivals and won in the final bout 8-0 over Dominican Leo D. Santana, in only 16 seconds.
Also in wrestling, but in the women´s freestyle, Liana Montero reached the scepter in the 57 kg when defeating 6-1 Puerto Rican Nes Marie Rodriguez and her teammate Lilianet Duanes was runner-up in the 53 kg division, while Yusneylys Guzman (50) ranked third.
Leidis Maris Veranes and Michael Carty won gold medals in saber and foil, respectively, in the individual fencing tournament of those weapons when beating 15-12 and 15-9 Eileen Grench, from Panama, and the local Daniel Sconzoo, in that order.
In the men´s foil event, the also Cuban Luis Aguilera ranked third after losing 14-15 to Carty in semifinals.
In athletics, the highlight went to Rose Mary Almanza, winner of the women´s 800m race; and the title of decathlete Leonel Suarez, who scored 8,026 points, while Briander Rivero (7,858) was bronze medalist in that same event.
The men's 25-meter rapid fire pistol team, made up by Leuris Pupo, Jorge Alvarez and Juan Perez, took the crown home with 1,713 units, escorted by Venezuela (1670) and the host squad (1666).
Individually, Alvarez dressed in gold in a very tough final against Pupo, to score 27 points, one more than the Olympic champion.
The girls of the rhythmic gymnastics got gold and silver medals in the sets of three balls and two ropes, and five hoops, respectively.
Another second seat was achieved in badminton, in the mixed team event by losing 2-3 to Mexico; although they improved the result reached four years ago, when they were bronze medalists.
Meanwhile, in judo, Cuba won one silver and three bronze medals through the woman Melissa Hurtado, runner up in the 48 kilos, while Nahomis Acosta (52) and the men Roberto Almenares (60) and Yandry Torres (55) all finished third.
In addition, the men´s and women´s recurve teams both ranked third after being defeated 1-5 and 0-6 in both cases by Guatemala.
In other significant results, boxing continued undefeated and all the seven Cuban athletes got tickets to the finals
when lightweight Lazaro Alvarez and welter Roniel Iglesias beat 4-1 and 3-2 Dominicans Leonel de los Santos and Rohan Polan, in that order.
Meanwhile, the men´s team sports maintained their steady pace. This is the case of the volleyball, which beat 3-0 the DR, and basketball, winner 97-80 over the Bahamas; the softball players remained unbeaten in five outings when defeating 7-0 Bahamas, while the Cuban women´s waterpolo squad reached the semifinals after beating 22-1 Trinidad and Tobago, in what was their fourth game in the contest.
Finally, Cuba finished fourth in the event of women´s technical team of artistic swimming, with 64.9566 points.