The Cuban sprinter Shainer Rengifo, current national record holder in the 100 meters flat, left on Thursday the training base of the island's Olympic athletics team in the city of Guadalajara, Spain.
According to Playoffmagazine magazine on the social network Facebook, Rengifo recently left the Alcarria hotel, where part of the delegation from the largest of the Antilles is staying before traveling to Paris, the host city of the upcoming Olympic Games.
However, it is worth remembering that the native of the special municipality Isla de la Juventud had been left out of the delegation to the competition under the five rings, after suffering an injury on June 30 during a practice session.
"I was covering a morning strength training session at the gym when the accident occurred as I was getting off the bench due to an ankle inversion, which resulted in an injury. He was immediately attended to and is following the instructions," the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education, and Recreation (INDER) explained in a statement.
Finally, it was revealed that he suffered a fracture of the base of the fifth metatarsal in his right ankle.
Rengifo's decision leaves the island without a sprinter who had aroused great expectations among athletics fans, thanks to the impressive time of 9.90 seconds he achieved this season.
In Salamanca, also in Spanish territory, he surprised both fans and onlookers by clocking the mentioned time, at an event where his teammate Reinaldo Espinosa stopped the clocks at 9.96 and also secured a spot in the multisport competition.
Two days ago, Annia Hernández Peñalver, coach of the female softball team in the under-12 category, abandoned the national delegation during a layover in Miami and requested asylum from the United States authorities.
Hernández took advantage of his stay at Miami International Airport (MIA), where the team made a technical stopover to continue the flight to Puerto Rico, host of the 2024 Latin American Little League Tournament, as reported by the specialized portal The Cuban Baseball Digest.
After arriving at MIA, the instructor surrendered to officials from the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to request political asylum in the USA.
After an interview with the officials, Hernandez was released, as confirmed to Martí Noticias by sources connected to the case.
The leaks of Reginfo and Hernández increase the long list of people linked to Cuban sports who have left the country or national teams in foreign competitions, in search of better opportunities for their sports careers and their lives, amid the widespread crisis affecting Cuba.
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