In an exclusive interview with with Prensa Latina, the experienced official highlighted the ongoing renewal process of a team that widely leads the medal count in world championships, with more than 80 titles, and is the runner-up in Olympic medals (41 golds), but since the Munich 1972 Games, it clearly leads the count of gold medals worldwide.
This could be a challenging Olympic cycle, but our work is also aimed at guaranteeing the future, and we can say that we currently have many young boxers with a similar level of quality in the national preselection, which explains the rivalry and our possibilities to choose fighters for the main events, he stressed.
These days the team, consisting of seven men and three women, is in a training base in the city of Tremblay-en-France, thanks to a project by the Cuba Coopération France (CubaCoop) association, which he thanked for its support and its willingness to accompany the Cuban sports movement in the face of the limitations imposed by the United States’ blockade.
According to Puig, the boxers who are training in France are shaping up to be the Cuban representation at the Pan-American Games in Santiago de Chile on October 20.
Four fighters are training in Tremblay-en-France and they will be making their debut in the regional tournament, at which Julio Cesar La Cruz (92 kilograms), Arlen Lopez (80) and Lazaro Alvarez (63.5) will be competing again.
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