Cuban sport”s top leader Antonio Becali spent the first of two days here during which he will explore the possibilities of preparation of the island”s delegation to the 2020 Olympic Games in Japan.
Becali expects both to train professional athletes here, and to expand cooperation in sports; thus he met with Le Khanh Hai, the vice minister that handles Sports within the portfolio also in charge of Tourism and Culture, with promising results.
As in other countries, we evaluate the sporting chances that our Olympic Games’ athletes come here to train; therefore, we reviewed Vietnamese potential in several disciplines, its infrastructure and other conditions, Becali told Prensa Latina.
The Vietnamese are also interested in Cuban boxing and volleyball coaches coming to work here and we also talk about exchanges of visits by national teams, he stressed.
During his Asian tour, the president of the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (INDER) made a first stop in Mongolia, where he was received by the highest sports’ authorities of that country.
Mongolia is very strong in combat sports such as wrestling, especially in the female branch, and we want to take advantage of its potential. Also, in sport shooting and archery, a specialty in which they have a very advanced technology, he referred.
So we talked about the convenience of training our teams of these sports there, Becali said, and as we will do tomorrow in the case of Vietnam, we visited numerous facilities to see if they comply with the conditions required for it.
In addition, we assessed the possibilities of training Mongolian trainers from other disciplines in Cuba.
From Hanoi, the Cuban sports leader will travel to Tokyo on Saturday.
Apart from being the headquarters of the Olympic Games, he pointed out, Japan is very interested that Cubans are going to prepare there because there are many sports in which we are coincidentally strong, such as boxing, athletics, wrestling and, of course, baseball, that returns to the Olympic program.
Of course, in the case of baseball, our attention will be focused on complying with a strategy that guarantees our qualification, but afterwards, he said, there is a good chance that we will do a correct preparation in Japan, where we have players who are having very positive results.
In the Land of the Rising Sun, Becali plans to meet with the presidents of the Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games and of the federations of professional baseball, judo and gymnastics, as well as with the Minister of Sports.
There are four nations that are key in our training plans for the Olympic Games, the three already mentioned and China, but we will visit this one on a later occasion, he concluded.
(Prensa Latina)