After their extraordinary performance in the Polish Challenge last weekend, the Cuban beach volleyball couple put their foot and a half into the Paris Olympic Games.
Sunday’s silver medal forced their closest pursuers, the pairs of Austria and Chile, to finish with medals in the very strong Czech competition, which seemed almost chimerical.
But an auction of the organization chart at the Ostrava fair brought the news. If the Austrians Julian Horl and Alexander Horst, and the South Americans Marcos and Esteban Grimalt, pass the first round, in their second match they will see each other net. In this way, one of the duos will lose, opening the doors of the City of Light to Noslen Díaz from Artemis and Jorge Luis Alayo from Villa Clara.
Even so, the fact will not be official until next June 10, the date on which the International Volleyball Federation will announce the duos that won the position under the five rings, based on the ranking.
But what has been transcended is a reason for satisfaction and tribute to the young Cubans, who dreamed and made a country that did not stop following them in every battle, and now lifts them up with the Olympic reality. Another story will begin in Paris.
In 2024
- From 30th to 15th place in just three months.
- Seven qualifying circuit tournaments.
- Two silver medals.
- Two bronze medals.
- A fourth place.
- A ninth place.
CANADA HAS THE MEASURE OF CUBA
Canada, playing in Ottawa, dealt Cuba the fourth setback in its last games, winning 3-1 (25-21, 25-27, 25-20 and 28-26) at the start of the second week of the Volleyball Nations League, qualifying for Paris-2024.
The setback subtracts 8.98 points from the Caribbean and, although they maintain ninth place in the ranking, in the Parisian classification zone, the accumulated score now stands at 252.19 units.
The Cubans opened with the same regular team from the first week, with Miguel Ángel López and Marlon Yant, Robertlandy Simón in duo with Javier Concepción, the opposite Michael Sánchez and the passer Christian Thondique. That set marked the match, due to the early exit of Simón, apparently suffering from his back, and although it was close, it opened when the hosts closed the net with his block.
In the second half, the forward attackers, Erio Loeppky and Stephen Timothy Maar, led the winning attack, while López pushed to a 16-all tie, which gave way to an unstoppable Antillean rebellion to win the set.
In two sets, the Caribbeans only had three blocks to their rivals’ ten. A tie at seven in the third round gave way to 10-7 for the locals, moving up to 20-19, with López (13) and Yant (12) as the spearheads. But it was not enough. The lack of Simón was notable, because the blocks were only four, against 14.
The fourth set had the Cubans dominating until the 16th minute, with José Masó as the opposite number in place of Sánchez, and the count reached 20-16, predicting a tie break, more reception failures, present throughout the game, and The Canadians’ defense on the net made it possible to tie it at 24, and their victory on an extra score.
