The International Judo Federation confirmed this Wednesday the classification of six Cuban judokas to the Tokyo Olympic Games, five of them through the world ranking and one through the continental quotas assigned for each region of the planet.
In a system that began in mid-2018, it was stopped for several months due to COVID-19, it returned to work in October 2020 and concluded on June 13 with the World Championship, for Cuba Iván Silva (90 kg) obtained quotas, Andy Granda (+100 kg), Maylín del Toro (63 kg), Kaliema Antomarchi (78 kg) and Idalys Ortiz (+78 kg). All of them are among the first 18 positions in each division, at the rate of one representative per country.
Meanwhile, Magdiel Estrada (73 kg) finished with one of the 21 tickets distributed in America for judocas who failed to advance through the Olympic ranking. The Creole closed in the 29th seat of the ladder, after having as his best performances in the period his titles in the 2019 and 2021 Pan American Championships.
For his part, Silva finished in seventh place on the list and will be one of the seeds in the Olympic tournament, a condition that will allow him to start his journey against opponents worse located on the list. The 2018 world runner-up accumulated eleven medals on the world circuit, five of them gold, and will live his second Olympic experience in Tokyo, after falling in his first 81 kg bout in Rio 2016.
Meanwhile, Andy Granda appears in 14th place in the heaviest category, a position he consolidated with his 2020 Pan American title, silver at the 2018 Cancun Grand Prix and the meritorious bronzes at the 2020 Paris Grand Slam and Tbilisi 2021. In that division, Frenchman Teddy Riner will try to add to his history by winning his third consecutive title under five rings.
Among the ladies, Idalys Ortiz will also look to expand on her legend and compete in Tokyo as the leader in the over 78kg. The triple summer medalist accumulates 7488 units and leads a ladder where other great favorites, such as the Japanese Akira Sone and the French Romane Dicko march in positions three and five, respectively. The Caribbean woman participated in 16 scoring tournaments for the ranking and only in three of them did she not get on the podium.
The performance of Maylin del Toro (63 kg) also leaves hope for the ladies, a woman who will arrive in eighth position after Japan and Slovenia have to opt for one of the two judokas that have locations ahead of the Caribbean. Facing her Olympic debut, the Cuban counts on the fact that in the last four official competitions she always finished in the first eight places.
Another beginner in Olympic dating will be Kaliema Antomarchi, who at 33 years old finally gets the dream. The 2017 world tanning accumulates the second highest number of tournaments among the qualifiers of the Island - one behind the 23 of Iván Silva - and appears as the eighth in the starting list.
In that ranking, France, Japan and Germany had to choose one of their two judokas located in a privileged zone and that led to the rise of ours.
Among the eight who were looking for quotas, only Orlando Polanco (66 kg) and Arnaes Odelín (57 kg), failed to be included among the privileged. In the case of the first, he was only two seats away from attending Tokyo, while the absence of the girl leaves the Antillean team with a void in the face of a mixed team tournament that will have twelve countries in dispute.
The Greater Antilles occupies the sixth place in the historical medal table of Olympic judo, with six titles, 14 silver and 16 bronze. Japan (39-19-24) leads the sport, followed by France (10-14-25), Russia (9-12-22), South Korea (11-16-16) and China (3-8-11). Five years ago in Rio de Janeiro, Cuban judokas only enjoyed the silver of the star Idalys Ortiz.
CUBADEBATE