The Cuban Yarisleidis Cirilo, one of the golden hopes of her delegation, qualified directly for the semifinals of the C1-200 meters event in Olympic canoeing at Paris 2024 this Thursday, with the second best time of the qualifying round.
Cirilo, universal monarch of the specialty, stopped the clocks at 45.94 seconds, a time only surpassed by the American Nevin Harrison (45.70), the reigning queen under the five rings and winner of series 2.
"I knew I would have quality opponents in my series, but the goal was always to avoid the quarter-finals. I aimed to achieve a good time and do it technically as well as possible," said the native of Guantánamo in statements collected by the newspaper JIT.
"The level is very high, but I think that's normal. Everyone is preparing to participate in the Olympic Games and win a medal. There will always be some who prepare better, which doesn’t necessarily mean more, and who sacrifice more in training," the sports publication added.
Individually, Cirilo, the continental champion, will return to his boat on Saturday in search of advancing to the medal competition. Before that, he will compete in the C2-500 alongside Yinnoly López, also in the semifinal round.
López, just 17 years old, finished in fourth place in the debut round, with a time of 49.27 seconds, and then improved his performance (48.76), although he finished in fifth place in the heat.
With three rounds to go, Cuba is in 21st place on the overall medal table, with two gold medals, one silver, and a couple of bronzes. The titles were won by the legend Mijaín López in Greco-Roman wrestling and boxer Erislandy Álvarez.
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