Diorges Escobar

Havana, Jun 13 (RHC) - Cuba's men's team qualified for the next Central Caribbean event and achieved the first of its goals at the Panama 2025 Pan American Artistic Gymnastics Championship.

The Cuban team scored 220.150 points in the maximum accumulator team event and placed seventh in the continental competition. However, taking only the countries of the Central American and Caribbean region as a reference, it finished third.

Only Colombia (227,100) and Puerto Rico (225,000) were ahead, hence the possibility of presenting four men in the Central American and Caribbean Games of Santo Domingo 2026.

Yohendri Villaverde, Diorges Escobar, Argenis Castañeda, Alexander Sánchez, and Darian Rodríguez contributed to a performance praised by the national commissioner, Pedro Pablo Barrios.

By strategy, Yohendri was the only one to perform all six exercises; Diorges returns after shoulder surgery and only performed in four.

Yohendri closed in 15th place in the individual all-around after scoring 72.850 units, especially in the vaulting horse. 

In that apparatus he completed 13.825 units and ensured he will be in the medal discussion this Saturday. During the qualifying rounds, he was only surpassed by Canadian Olympic and world finalist Felix Dolci (14.075).

Diorges will compete in three finals, as he advanced as first on floor (13.650), third on parallel bars (13.650) and fifth on fixed beam (13.300).

In the parallel bars, Alexander also reached a place among the eight finalists with a score of 13.400 units.

This Friday, it will be the girls' turn to look for a place in Santo Domingo 2026. The challenge will be more demanding due to the competitive inexperience of the group made up of Keyla Leiva, Gélidis Reginfo, Maykelis Aguilar, and Danny Roll.

Source: JIT