Larduet closes Cuban door

#Sports #ArtisticGymnastics #Athletics #Migration #Frontiers #Journalism #Opinion

Cuban gymnast, Manrique Larduet, with his new team in Italy. Image taken from the gymnast's Facebook profile.

Another blow to Cuban sport. One of the best gymnasts of all time, Manrigue Larduet, closed the doors to the Greater Antilles and began his preparation with a new club in the Old Continent.

According to Play Off Magazine, the Glasgow 2015 world championship in the All Around posted on his social networks several images in which he is seen accompanied by a squad of coaches and athletes from Team Italy in one of the most important centers in artistic gymnastics in the transalpine country.

The young man born in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba, who will soon turn 26, thanked on his Instagram and Facebook profiles the Palestra As Gin - Ssd Ginnastica Civitavecchia for the possibility of preparing there and surrounding himself with his "new family" in this restart of his career.

Manrique Larduet resigned from the national team after a series of confrontations with the directors of the governing body of the sport in Cuba, initially due to the refusal of the entry to the island of his trainer and architect of such good results, Carlos Gil. And then for the non-inclusion in the delegation that participated in the XXXII Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. One of the many injustices that have been committed with our athletes.

Yasmani Copello, a Cuban runner who became a Turkish national a few years ago. Image taken from the athlete's Facebook profile.

Also in the news is the recognition received by Yasmani Copello Escobar, a Cuban hurdler with Turkish nationality, by the sports and political authorities of his country, after winning the 400-meter hurdles in the Mediterranean Games with a record for these events of 48.27 seconds, and also winning the bronze medal as part of the 4x400-meter relay.

Copello left Cuba in search of the opportunities he never found in his own country. In Europe, doors opened for him to more than a few competitions at club level, and with the Turkish national team he achieved his best results: third place at the XXXI Olympic Games in Rio 2016 and silver medal at the XVI World Athletics Championships in London 2017.

This good news fills with joy the followers of the sport on the island. Two athletes trained in the Cuban school now shine in other latitudes. Their names are accompanied by the national ensign that welcomed them and not under which they were born. A phenomenon that should not be normal because of its repetition.

But this does not only happen with active athletes -who are not few nowadays-, who ask to leave their federation and go "hunting" for better contracts or financial options; or those who abandon their team at the training bases. The neglect of those who were all light and glory at their peak and then are victims of ostracism once retired is evident in many disciplines.

How can it be explained that a sporting glory such as jumper Ivan Pedroso turns men and women beyond our borders into champions and record holders? Doesn't the Cuban Athletics Federation need the experience it has and provides to others? And so, we could be listing a good number of questions. Almost all of them without probable answers. The Cuban spyglass is still looking in the wrong place.