CAMAGÜEY.- The team victory of El Mayor’s Warriors in the 58 National Boxing Tournament Playa Girón was not the news for today, but the individual triumph of four of its members left a musical chorus in the harrows as the epitaph of the year: “Camagüey has got to stop”.
The afternoon started cold for the Camagüeyans with the defeat of Damián Arce in 52 kilograms (kg) to the defensive champion Yosbani Veitía. The boxer from Sancti Spíritus did not fall in the trap of the local fighter and avoided frontal exchanges to take advantage of combinations of two blows and moving constantly on the ring. “It is only a defeat in a long way filled with challenges, there will be other opportunities for the rematch”, commented Arce at the end of the fight, while Veitía acknowledged that “he knew that it was going to be hard to win over because he is a train, but my plan worked out”.
The man in charge of set the harrows afire was Kevin Brown, from Nuevitas, with his elaborate victory against the Olympic and world champion Rosniel Iglesias. Yesterday Rosniel was about to loose his crown to Damián Lescay, but he received the support of the judges, but today Brown convinced even his rival from Pinar del Río of his victory.
In the finals of the 75 and 91 kg the success for Camagüey was already expected, nevertheless, the four went out to defeat their own teammates. Yasnier Areu and Yoenlis Hernández fought hard from the beginning, since that is the only division that had not defined yet a first figure, and the young man Ángel Nápoles spent three rounds looking for Julio César La Cruz’s chin to leave him out of combat.
With a better third round, Areu draw the votes in his favor, in a match where the talented Hernández was not very precise in his offensives. “El Guayabo”, on his part, took advantage with his rare style of distant blows, favored by the reach of his long extremities. Julio César, without more effort that foreseen, managed to increase his count with phantasmagoric entries of three blows to Nápoles’ face.
The rematch of the past edition between the promising Camagüeyan Dainier Peró and Yoandry Toirac from Havan was reserved for the closure of the tournament and, although it was not as spectacular as in 2018, it ended in the same result. But it seems to have the exact measure to hit Toirac twice and remain distant to avoid the tough fists back, which is, doubtlessly, the best complete super in Cuba.
To the history books will enter as well the crowns to the best boxer in the country at the moment, Andy Cruz (63 kg) from Matanzas and Osvel Caballero (57 kg) from Mayabeque, both reached easily against Jorge Moirant from Guantánamo and Osvaldo Díaz from Sancti Spíritus, respectively.
The light flyweight, eliminated this year from the Olympic schedule, was a division that did not shine much regarding technique, but it did regarding fight and the final between Alibel Poll from Santiago de Cuba and Billy Rodríguez from Havana showed it. After three intense rounds, the guy from Havana earned his first national belt. Another category that was not very spicy after Lázaro Álvarez retreated for a lesion was the 60 kg division, dominated this time by Darielki Palmero from Sancti Spíritus at the expense of Rafael Joubert from Guantánamo.
The other local to fall to a visitor in the great final was Raicel Poll (81 kg), who could not take out the mighty Arlen López from Guantánamo. The Olympic monarch in Río 2016 was more precise in his overwhelming swings that were able to remove Poll’s anatomy and force him to worry about the defense.
Those were the closing fights in an event that left a national preselection that only had as novelty the incorporation of Irasel Parchments from Las Tunas. The teams were dominated by the Warriors, that accumulated 59 units with four gold medals, four silvers and two bronzes and spread his kingdom for the ninth consecutive time, followed by Sancti Spíritus (45) and Guantánamo (42).
- Translated by Elianna Díaz Mendieta
