Havana, October 31 (RHC) – Jonathan Charón (60 kg) and Orlando Polanco (66 kg) won the titles in their respective divisions at the 2026 Florida Pan American Judo Open, in which the Cuban squad also won two silver medals.
Charón started strong, winning easily by default against American Hector Sanchez, and then advanced to the semifinals with a yuko victory over Colombian Johan Rojas.
In the semifinal, he dispatched Canadian Xavier Brouillette, who managed to score a waza-ari, but the Cuban also reached that score and secured a yuko victory. In the final, he needed extra time to defeat Brazilian Michel Augusto by hansoku-make and claim the gold medal.
Polanco dispatched three Canadians in a row by ippon: Daniel McCristall, Eliandre Barriault-Tremblay, and Luke Thomson, before facing Brazilian Joao Lira in the final, whom he defeated by yuko in golden rule to win Cuba’s second title.
Lianet Cardona (78 kg) reached the final with an easy victory over local favorite Lydia Coleman, but two waza-ari scores by Venezuelan Elvismar Rodríguez left her with the silver medal.
Dayanara Curbelo (+78 kg) had a similar experience. After defeating Poland’s Urszula Hofman in the quarterfinals and the Dominican Republic’s Moira Morillo in the semifinals, both in golden rule matches (the second bout lasted over eight minutes), she couldn’t overcome fellow Venezuelan Karen León in the final. Despite this, she earned a silver medal, placing Cuba second in the overall standings.
After the first day of competition, Venezuela leads the medal count with five titles, while Brazil sits in third place behind Cuba.
The event concludes this Sunday, with two more Cubans still to compete: Iván Silva (100 kg) and Andy Granda (+100 kg), both favorites to win their respective divisions.
