Baseball

Granma came from behind to defeat 6-3 to current defending champion, Pinar del Río, to be located now at 2 games from defeated Matanzas, current leader of 54th Cuban Baseball Championship.

Granma's Los Alazanes lost 3-1 at the 9th chapter when Alfredo Despaigne gave homer with the bases loaded to leave Matanzas on the field at the Martires de Barbados Stadium, in Bayamo city, where international Vladimir Gutierrez homered and Juan Ramón Olivera took the success in 2 innings.

In the Isla de la Juventud, the hosts Los Piratas, did not believe in the Matanzas' deadly machinery and defeated it by 5-1 with Yoalkis Cruz' and closer Danny Aguilera's combined pitching, win that allowed Los Piratas to climb to 3rd place in the Table.

Other losers were Industriales at the hands of Ciego de Avila's Los Tigres by a score of 3-2 at the capital's Latinoamericano Stadium where right-handers Yander Guevara and Vladimir García reduced the capital's multichampion battery to just 7 spaced hits.

Another successful visitor was Artemisa, which dominated 6-3 to Holguín at the Calixto García Stadium. Norge Luis Ruiz again lost to tolerate 9 hits in 5 episodes. These teams will play this Saturday their 2nd commitment of this subseries.

Now the Table presents Matanzas with 37 and 18, followed by Granma, at 2 games, La Isla and Industriales sharing sites 3rd and 4th at 6 games, Pinar at 7, Artemisa and Ciego de Avila at 8, and Holguin closing it at 11 games behind the leader.

An another good news regarding baseball says that Francisco Puello Herrera, Commissioner of the Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation, ratified the presence of Cuba in the upcoming Caribbean Series, agreed from February 2nd to 8th in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Puello Herrera recently confirmed the participation of Cuba in the Caribbean Classic to face malicious comments from some media about the possible absence of the Cuban squad, the sports publication Jit reports on its website.
The head of the baseball entity said they are still involved in preparations at less than a month before the start of the competition, with the assistance of the champion teams of Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Cuba.
He also stated that one of the most important organizational issues is related with the presence of the champion of Cuba, despite comments appeared in various media questioning its participation for the 2nd consecutive year.

Puello Herrera added that the only pending aspect to finish formalizing the participation of Cuban representation is the permit approval by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control, response that should be here any moment --he noted--.
Cuba's squad to assist the Caribbean Series requires a special dispensation from the US government under the extraterritorial measures associated with the economic, commercial and financial blockade that Washington maintains against Cuba for over half a century.

The reigning monarch of Cuban Baseball Championship, Pinar del Río's team, will intervene in the Caribbean Classic widely reinforced by members of the national team in search of fighting for the crown to the holders of the baseball leagues of Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Mexico and Puerto Rico, still to be defined.

 Boxing

The London-2012 Olympic champion Robeisy Ramirez took revenge on Friday against the Moroccan Mohamed Hamout at the premiere of the Cuba's champion team, Los Domadores, who beat 5-0 to Lions of Morocco in the 5th World Series of Boxing.

Ramirez (56 k) was surpassed by Hamout in Marrakech last year, shortly before winning the title in Veracruz-2014, when he was not yet in top form; however, on Friday, he gave no doubt at the capital's Sports City Collisium, where he won by unanimous 3-0 decision.

In other stops, the talented former youth figure, Yohanys Argilagos (49 kg), who just turned 18, also won 3-0 to host Zouhir El Bekkali; like the world multimedallist Yasnier Toledo defeated local Hamza El Barbari at 64 kg.

Meanwhile, Arlen López (75) won by default in the 3rd assault to Badr-Eddine Haddioui, while Erislandy Savón in the 91 imposed his quality and put out of combat in the same 1st assault against local Amine Azzouzi.

With this result, Cuba's Los Domadores take very early the lead in Group A with 5 wins by unanimous vote.

In other results, the Lion Hearts from Britain defeated 3-2 to China's the Dragons.

The 1st date this key is supplemented with the caps among the Ukraine's Otamans vs. Mexico's Los Guerreros and Russia against the Algeria's the Hawks, while the other 4 clashes in Group B will take place today.