Cuba in the Central American and Caribbean Games (XV)

With just over a year to go before the Central American and Caribbean Games, Cuba took over the hosting of the multi-sport event as an alternate because the event could not be held in Mayagez, Puerto Rico.

Havana will host the event from the 7th to the 18th. in August 1982, with the provinces of Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba also serving as sub-venues in an effort to maintain the event’s four-year cycle.

The number of 2,799 athletes was a record number of participants up to that time, representing 22 countries, as the British Virgin Islands and Grenada joined the event, while El Salvador and Honduras – due to their governments’ refusal – and Colombia were absent. to financial difficulties.

According to the late sports chronicler Enrique Montesinos in his book Los Juegos Regionales Ms Antiguos (The Oldest Regional Games), the competition featured 24 sports and 247 events, a higher number than previous editions.
Table tennis, rowing, field hockey, archery and Greco-Roman wrestling emerged as new events, while candles returned after being removed from Medellín’s 1978 competition calendar.

Likewise, javelin thrower Maria Caridad Colon, Olympic champion in Moscow in 1980, became the first woman to carry the torch in the cauldron lighting ceremony that opened the Central Caribbean Games.

Cuban Hilda Ramirez’s participation as a softball player stood out as she won four gold medals, three silver and one bronze in the previous five track and field events, achieved in shot put (2-2-0), javelin (2-1-0) and discus (0-0- 1).
According to the historical summary in this edition, the village in Central America did not have perimeter fences or divisions between areas reserved for women and men without any incidents of danger as a result.

In contention for the baseball crown – another major event – the local team lost to the Dominican Republic, while the Antillean major’s water polo and men’s volleyball teams won their fifth straight titles.

Local weightlifter Daniel Nez set the event’s first world record in the 60 kilogram (kg) weightlift with 292.5 kilograms.

Athletics (27-20-13), shooting (22-14-5), boxing (11-0-0) and judo (8-0-0) were again the best collectors of medals for the Cuban delegation.

Members of the gymnastics (15-11-2) and fencing (8-3-1) teams won all the gold medals in the competition, gymnast Orisel Martinez (four gold medals and two silver) and fencer Efigenio Favier, owner. three gold medals.
Leandro Pealver excelled on the track in the 100 and 200 meter (m) and 4×100 meter relay; Luisa Ferrer did so in 100 and 200 meters.

Coln matched her Medelln crown with 62.80m, and Ana Fidelia Quirot repeated her 1978 performance to top the podium in the 4x400m relay.

Other individual standouts were table tennis players Madeleine Armas (three golds and a silver) and Raul Betancourt (2-2-0); shooters Miguel A. Valdes (4-1-0) and Tania Perez (3-1-1); and archers Irma Perez (4-2-0) and Maria E. Naranjo (3-1-1).

Cuba also dominated wrestling (9-1-0), cycling (2-0-0-0) -which took only the road events-, unisex basketball, women’s volleyball, men’s field hockey, rowing (7-0). -1), table tennis (4-4-2), archery (7-6-5) and sailing (3-2-1).

Diving (2-1-1), swimming (1-6-3), synchronized swimming (1-2-0) and football (bronze) also won awards.

Montesinos added that weightlifters and freestyle athletes won in all categories, collecting 30 and 10 crowns.

The Caribbean island once again took first place by country with 173 gold medals, 71 silver medals and 38 bronze medals.
Mexico was again second in the medal table (29-55-47) and Venezuela (19-39-54) was third.