Cuba Hangs Pan Am Hopes on Boxing

(ATR) Cuba turns to boxing to revive what has been a disappointing performance so far at the Pan American Games in Lima.

Five men’s and two women’s gold medal matches are on the schedule for Thursday evening. All five of the men’s matches feature a Cuban. Success in the ring this evening and again tomorrow, when four more boxers are battling in men’s finals, will boost the country’s medal tally significantly.

Cuba currently sits 7th on the medals table, with five gold medals and a total of 22. The host country Peru is in 8th, with four gold medals among its total of 11. The United States leads with 78 total medals, 33 of them gold. Mexico is a distant runner-up with 49, including 14 gold.

Four other sports will also be handing out medals on Thursday.

Track cycling has finals in men’s and women’s team sprint as well as the omnium men points race.

In diving, it’s the finals of the women’s 3m synchronized springboard and the men’s 1m springboard.

Shooting awards medals in two events: women’s 10m air rifle and men’s 25m rapid fire pistol.

Finally, it’s the bronze medal and gold medal games in men’s softball. The United States and Mexico began play at 10am in Lima. The loser of this game takes the bronze medal, with the winner moving on to face Argentina in the gold medal game in the afternoon.

There was no daily press briefing on Thursday with Lima 2019 spokesman Carlos Manuel Lazarte. He has spent much of his time the past few days answering questions about problems with the transportation system for the Games, especially for the media.

On Wednesday, he announced that some changes had been made and promised an improvement in the system.

Written by Gerard Farekin Lima.

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