• Submitted by: admin
• International
• Sports
• 10 / 10 / 2007

Cuba won two silver medals at a recently concluded Olympic qualifier of taekwondo held in Manchester, England, and thus secured two tickets for the Olympic Games of 2008 in Beijing, China.

In the last day of competitions on Saturday, world champion Gesler Viera (68 kg) was in very good form and dominated all his rivals in the preliminary round, quarterfinals and in semifinals before he lost in the finale to South Korean Son Tae-Jin.

With this performance, Viera compensated his poor performance at the 15th Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in July, when he did not make the podium due to an injury.

The first Cuban who secured her presence in Beijing was Dianellis Montejo, in the women's 49-kilo division, who only lost in the finale to Shu Chun Yang, from Chinese Taipei.

The two other Cuban representatives in the contest, 2000 Olympic champion Angel Valodia Matos (80 kg) and Tahimi Castellanos (women's 67 kg), were eliminated in the preliminaries and will have another opportunity to classify for Beijing during the Olympic qualifier of the Americas that will take place in Cali, Colombia, on December 7-9 later this year.

Source: Al Dia.cu