Andy and Soila

Havana, July 15 (JIT) - Andy Manuel Avila signed the only Cuban advance to a final at the opening of the Fukuoka 2023 World Aquatic Sports Championships.

Debutant in the solo technical artistic swimming, Andy executed a routine that deserved 128.4033 points, after adding the notes of difficulty (11.9000), artistic impression (72.4500) and execution (55.9533).

With this total, the Caribbean athlete managed to be included among those who will compete for the medals next Sunday, although a podium finish seems quite a distant possibility, taking into account the level of his rivals in the decisive segment.

The best evaluation in the preliminaries was received by Spain's Fernando Diaz with 220.4034 units, according to the digital site of the competition organized by the World Aquatics, which distributes places for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

For the national commissioner of artistic swimming, Viviam Segura, Andy's performance is significant, since it is his first experience in this modality, for which the routine was set up in the middle of the preparation for the XXIV Central American and Caribbean Games of San Salvador 2023.

In that event, she performed as a partner of Soila Carelys Valdés in the mixed duet, a performance that will be repeated now in Japan. 

During the day, Gabriela Alpajón defended her technical routine and the judges awarded her 160.7934 points, valid for 25th place.

Another of the sports with Cuban presence in the World Cup start is diving, with Anisley García, Prisis Leydi Ruiz and Carlos Escalona among the leaders in the one-meter springboard diving event.

The best evaluated performance was that of Anisley with 226.30 units, valid for 24th place. Prisis was also in the discreet 43rd place, after accumulating 181.15 marks.

Also out of medal contention was Escalona, whose sum of 316.30 points was only enough for 24th place.