Yoe Tejeda

In 35th place on the country medal chart at the end of the tournament, Cuba’s delegation to the Second Youth Olympic Games, held in Nanjing, China, was far off the15th position they achieved four years ago, during the first edition of this multi-sport competition.

President of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, presented the Olympic flag to the Buenos Aires 2018 organizing committee, host city for the Third Youth Olympic Games.

A descent into the final positions had already been predicted in the pre-event analysis, due to the reduced number of athletes in Cuba’s delegation - only 12 in comparison to the 43 who participated in the 2010 tournament in Singapore.

On that occasion, Cuba was successful, placing among the elite after winning nine gold, three silver and two bronze medals.

But with a dozen athletes in only seven of 28 sporting categories, a strong performance was not predicted. Fortunately boxing once again showed its class, with gold medals won by Javier Ibáñez (56 kg) and Yordan Hernández (91 kg), champions of the Youth World Boxing tournament held this year in Sofía, Bulgaria and a silver by their teammate Alain Limonta - pushing Cuba up the medals standings. Together with the bronze won previously by Judo fighter, Iván Felipe Silva (81 kg), these were Cuba’s four moments on the podium.

Cuban boxer Yordan Hernández, defeated Croatian Toni Filipi 2-1 in the heavyweight division (91kg), winning the gold medal.

"It was a very difficult event, of a high level of quality, with the participation of 204 countries. But Cuba showed its potential, winning four medals with only a dozen participants (2-1-1). Each one of our 12 titans performed with great effort, discipline and commitment.

"If we maintain the commitment to win and daily determination, we will be in the presence of excellent athletes in the coming Olympic Games. Nonetheless, laurels were once again won in boxing, which with three representatives secured two titles and a silver medal," stated head of the Cuban delegation, Heriberto Suárez to Juventud Rebelde.

In the Men's Bantamweight class (56 kg), Cuban boxer Javier Ibañez beat Bulgarian Dushko Mihaylov 3-0 by judge’s decision, to win the gold medal.