14 May 2007 - Cuban team wins international tournament in Venezuela

Cuban team wins international tournament in Venezuela Valencia - 14 May 2007   The Cuban Recurve archery team won the archery competition of the ALBA Games recently concluded in Valencia, Venezuela. Archers from five Latin American countries took part in a very well organized event.   The Cuban archers won the four gold medals in the Olympic Round Individual and Team competitions for the Recurve bow. Veteran Juan Carlos Stevens won all of his four matches with scores of 113, 114, 109 and 110, to confirm that he is a strong candidate to win medals at the upcoming Pan American Games to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil at the end of July. Stevens shot very consistently all throughout the event, also winning the FITA round with 1297 points. Three weeks before, at a national tournament in Cuba, he had shot a wonderful 1319, just one point short of his national record.   In the ladies’ Recurve category, 2004 Olympian Maydenia Sarduy shot 103, 101, 108 and 103 in her four matches and beat Venezuela’s Doryte Marquez (101) in the Gold Medal Final. Maydenia (1244) was part of the team who set a National Record for the FITA round (3790) in this competition along with team-mates Larisa Pagan (1290) and Yaremis Perez (1256). In the team finals Cuba defeated a strong Venezuelan team 191-187.   Larisa Pagan was one of the archers who competed at the World Junior Championships in Merida, Mexico, last year with a Viva America Scholarship. She has shown notorious improvement this year, setting a national record for the FITA round three weeks ago at 1298 points. In Valencia she was second in the FITA round (with the same score as winner Vanessa Chacon from Venezuela), first at 50m with 321 and second at 70m with 317 points.   The other Viva America scholarship holder for Cuba, Adrian Puentes, shot his best FITA round in Venezuela, with 1257, ranking third in the FITA round and fourth in the Olympic Round. He became a member of the Cuban senior national team just a few months ago, and he appears to have big chances of competing at the Pan American Games in Rio. He and the other newcomer in the team, 20 year old Josey Valdes, teamed up with Stevens to win the Gold Medal versus El Salvador 212-192.   These medals are the result of serious training and the recent purchase of new archery equipment for the National Team. Additionally, FITA has recently contributed intermediate-level archery equipment to Cuba, which will add to the development of archery at the grass-root level.    The Cuban team is looking at three important events this year: the Batalla de Carabobo World Ranking Event in Venezuela (end of June), the World Championships in Germany (where Cuba’s only representative will be Juan Carlos Stevens), and the Pan American Games in Rio.    Sergio FONT FITA International Judge