Last Monday night, Cuban sports suffered another defeat. Wrestler Hangelen Llanes, gold medalist at the XXIV Central American and Caribbean Games, in the 68 kilogram category, escaped in France. The habanera, according to the coach Daniel Gomez, left the team’s training camp in Paris before traveling to Serbia. “Welcome to freedom,” Gómez wrote in a post on Facebook.
Llanes was included, along with Laura Herin, by coach Filiberto Delgado, in the team of 11 athletes who held a preparation camp in France. The intention was for them to continue their training ahead of the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, which will take place between October 20 and November 5.
The goal of the coach, as stated to the official radio station Radio Rebelde, was that the athletes could “have a good rest, an excellent diet, in addition to training with European fighters.” For the team that will travel to Santiago are Ángela Álvarez, who won gold at the University Festival in Russia, and María Fernanda Santana. Both train at the Cerro Pelado High Performance Athlete Training School, in Boyeros.
The escape of Llanes, who last year was distinguished as one of the most outstanding athletes in the discipline, leaves Cuba without the possibility of a medal in the 68 kilogram category at the Pan American Games.
The escape of Hangelen Llanes joins other more recent ones by wrestling athletes Yoannia Pérez and Liliana Duane, who in March of this year took advantage of a stopover in Mexico to leave the island’s delegation.
At this time, Filiberto Delgado does not have another athlete who can fill this space. Hangelen Llanes had been winning since 2022. In May of that year, she won the silver medal at the Pan American Wrestling Championship, which was held in Acapulco (Mexico), after losing in the final to the Venezuelan Soleymi Antonieta Caraballo.
In this event, between May 3 and 7, Ismael Borrero, Leonardo Herrera and Amanda Hernández escaped. Of them, the first to escape was Borrero, he did so the same day they arrived in Mexico. He was followed by Leonardo Herrera, the athlete who had been chosen to replace the Olympic champion Luis Orta. The escapes with Amanda Hernández ended.
Among the announcements of abandonments, Hangelen Llanes returned to the Island on that occasion. Seven months later, in December 2022, she won the gold medal in the competition held in the Parque del Este in the Dominican Republic. The good moment was ratified in San Salvador 2023.
Llanes also attended the Pan American Wrestling Championships held in Argentina last May, where he won the bronze medal.
The escape of Hangelen Llanes joins other more recent ones by wrestling athletes Yoannia Pérez and Liliana Duanewho in March of this year took advantage of a stopover in Mexico to leave the island’s delegation.
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