Cuba hopes to finish in top 20 at Rio 2016

Cuba will do its best to finish among the top 20 nations at the upcoming Olympic Games from August 5-21 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, said Antonio Becali, President of the National Sports Institute (INDER), on Thursday.

Becali highlighted that boxing, wrestling, athletics, taekwondo, judo, shooting and artistic gymnastics are some of the disciplines with a better chance of winning medals for the Caribbean nation.

To date, 85 Cuban athletes have already qualified in 13 sports but another 70 athletes (35 male and 35 female) will continue fighting for a place in 14 disciplines during May and June.

The INDER president said 110-120 athletes may qualify to represent the Caribbean island at the Games and the average age of the athletes should be around 25.

Out of the current 85, 54 of the athletes competed in London 2012 and the rest of the delegation have no Olympic experience.

Jose Antonio Miranda, INDER's Director for High Performance, stressed the athletes' high quality preparation for Rio de Janeiro 2016, especially referencing the individualized attention dedicated to the figures and disciplines that have potential to add to Cuba's medal list.

A total of 306 events will be held at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and the island is scheduled to participate in at least 127 of these at the moment. They will not be participating in around 15 disciplines.

Cuba expects to equal or improve on its performance in the previous event in London 2012, where the island ranked 16th in the medal table with five gold, three silver and six bronze.

The Caribbean nation has participated in 19 Olympics with its best results in Moscow 1980 (8-7-5) and Barcelona 1992 (14-4-11). In both cases they ranked in fifth place in the list. Endit