The Cuban canoeing delegation concluded its participation in the Pan American Championship in Montreall with one gold medal and one bronze medal on the final day, achieving a total of seven medals in the tournament held from July 13 to 15 in Canada.
However, the sporting outcome was overshadowed by the defection of three kayakers who left the delegation during the event.
Yarisleidis Cirilo and Yinnolis Franchesca López triumphed in the women's double canoe (C-2) at 500 meters with a time of 2:00.98 minutes, surpassing Canada (2:02.61) and the United States (2:03.88).
The victory, in addition to being the only gold for Cuba in the tournament, secured a direct qualification for the pair for the 2027 Pan American Games in Lima.
On that same day, José Ramón Pelier and Javier Regueiro climbed to the third step of the podium in the men's C-2 500 meters with a time of 1:47.77 minutes, surpassed by Brazil (1:44.28) and Canada (1:44.66). The duo is awaiting qualification for Lima 2027 as they did not secure a top two finish.
In the previous days, Cuba accumulated four silver medals and one additional bronze.
Cirilo won silver in the C-1 200 meters, Franchesca López repeated her silver medal in the C-1 200 meters for the under-23 category and in the C-1 500 meters of the same category, while Pelier did the same in the C-1 1000 meters.
The kayaker Daylen Pérez completed the medal tally with a bronze in the K-1 at 500 meters, with a time of 1:53.93 minutes.
But while the government celebrated the results, three kayakers separated from the delegation in Montreal during the III Sprint Canoeing World Cup, ahead of the Pan American Games, as revealed by the media Cubalite based on a source close to the team who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The kayakists Madelen Heredia Domínguez and Lismary Bombino Rasúa separated from the team without having participated in any event, which left Cuba without representation in the women's four-person kayak category at 500 meters.
Anthony Lamadrid Cabrera, on the other hand, did compete before leaving: he finished seventh in semifinal 3 of the K4-500 meters and sixth in heat 2 of the K1-500 meters.
The three athletes have established international careers. Heredia, a native of Guantánamo, participated in the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, in 2023. Bombino, from Cienfuegos, won two bronze medals at the Junior Pan American Games in Asunción in 2025. Lamadrid, from Villa Clara, was part of the runner-up team in the men's K4-500 meter event at the same competition.
The official newspaper Granma published a chronicle about the team's results in Montreal without mentioning at any point the departure of the three athletes.
Desertion occurs less than two weeks before the start of the Central American and Caribbean Games in Santo Domingo 2026 (July 24 to August 8), where Cuba aims to finish among the top three in the medal standings with a historic delegation of 504 athletes. The canoeing events are scheduled to take place from August 5 to 7 at the Rincón Dam Rowing and Canoeing Center in Bonao.
The abandonment of Cuban sports delegations abroad has become a recurrent phenomenon.
In May, two boxers defected during a stopover in Spain. In August 2025, six athletes left during the Junior Pan American Games in Asunción.
Since 2022, more than 100 Cuban athletes per year have left delegations or breached contracts abroad, and in the last decade, the total number exceeds 1,000 athletes.
The Cuban delegation is scheduled to return to the Island this Thursday to continue preparations for Santo Domingo 2026, with the Pan American Games in Lima 2027 and the Olympics in Los Angeles 2028 also on the horizon.
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