Havana, August 8 (RHC) – Cuban Marifelix Sarría won gold today in the clean and jerk (+86 kg) of weightlifting at the 2026 Central American and Caribbean Games, with 153 kilograms, in the José Joaquín Puello Pavilion.
With a powerful and technically proficient lift, Sarría confirmed her pedigree—a silver medalist at the 2025 World Championships in Førde and a rainbow of medals at the recent Pan American Games—to reclaim her Central American and Caribbean title in the clean and jerk.
Venezuelan Naryury Pérez, the snatch champion, secured the silver medal in the clean and jerk with 151 kg, while Dominican Crismery Santana lifted 147 kg for the bronze before a roaring crowd.
The snatch opened the competition with Pérez taking gold (122 kg) with a clean and precise lift, followed by Santana with 118 kg and Mexican Laura Jiménez with 110 kg, in a sequence of lifts that rattled the arena like a violin string.
Pérez, the snatch champion in San Salvador 2023 and then silver medalist in the clean and jerk, once again asserted her dominance in the first half, while Santana—gold medalist in 2023 and Olympic bronze medalist in Tokyo 2020—maintained the local momentum before the finale.
In the sum of gestures and irons, Sarría imposed his final pulse, that split second in the air when the bar becomes destiny, and left in Santo Domingo the signature of a gold medal, the 51st for the Cuban delegation at this regional multi-sport event.
