The province of Guantánamo ranks among the 2014 top-ten athletes, two of its leading stars, due to their prominence in the World Rowing Championships, the Central American and Caribbean Games and the World Boxing Series.
The rower Angel Fournier is among the winners, who shone brightly on the international arena and appeared on the list of the ten most outstanding athletes of the Caribbean nation.
Fournier is distinguished since in 2014 he has won eight gold medals and two bronze, one of them at the World Rowing Championships.
The Caimanera athlete, of 27 years old, has turned into the inspiration of his teammates in the 22th Central American and Caribbean Games, in Veracruz, Mexico, where they won three titles in single scull (1X), double scull (2 X) and quad scull (4X) and open weight.
The other gold medals were got at the Pan American Sports Festival of Mexico, with three, and two at the champion-boat-rowing-regattas in Hamburg, Germany, and at Cotiviel in Peru.
Fournier achieved the bronze medals at the World Championships in Amsterdam, in Netherlands, and the World Cup in Aiguebelette, in France.
He also won a silver medal at Chungju, in South Korea, and he was a multiple-medal-winner at 2011 Guadalajara Pan American Games. Fournier should become the first Cuban Olympic rower champion, with an eye to Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
The other Guantanamo athlete selected among the most outstanding is the boxer Erislandy Savon, of 91 kilograms, the best fighter in the 4th World Boxing Series and the champion in 2014 Veracruz Games, in Mexico.Also from Guantanamo the heptalon Yorgelis Rodriguez and triple jumper Lazaro Martinez rank the list of Cuba’s juvenile top-ten athletes, who both were the champion and runner-up, respectively, in the Veracruz Games.
The wrestler Mijaín Lopez, 130 kilos, and judoka Idalis Ortiz (+78) were selected as the most outstanding athletes of Cuba in 2014, due to the titles won at the world championships and the 22rh Central American and Caribbean Games in Veracruz.
This year López has won five world titles, including two Olympic medals, while Ortiz got two gold on the planet, and is the Olympic champion, a performance that places her on top of the world ranking of her division.
Translation: Liubis Balart Martínez
