Cuban Wrestlers Training in Italy

Cuban Wrestlers Training in Italy Havana, Sept 6 . – Beijing Olympic champion Mijain Lopez, 120kg, heads the Cuban wrestling team that is training in Italy for the Sept. 12-18 FILA Wrestling World Championships in Turkey, the Cuban News Agency reported.

Lopez, world champion in Budapest 2005, Baku 2007, Herning 2009 and Moscow 2010, is the favorite to win the gold medal for the Cuban team and to get his fifth crown in a row.

Another contender is Pablo Shorey, who was runner-up in Moscow 2010 and bronze medal winner in Herning 2009.

He is also favorite to triumph in his weight category and win another medal for the Cuban team.

Other members of the team are Pedro Isaac, 66kg, who won the bronze medal in Herning 2009, Yasnier Hernandez, 55kg, who won the gold medal in the Pan American Games Rio de Janeiro 2007, and Yunior Estrada, who was seventh in Moscow 2010.

All of them will be under coach Frank Chamizo and former Olympic and world champion Filiberto Azcuy.

The freestyle team is formed by Frank Chamizo, 55kg, bronze in Moscow 2010; Alejandro Valdés, 60kg; Livan Lopez, 66kg; Yuniesky Blanco, 74 kg; and Disney Rodriguez, 120kg, all of them coached by Julio Mendieta.

According to the National Wrestling Commission, this competition is very important because it wins slots in the upcoming the London Olympics.

The Cubans aim to make a good impression and win as many slots as possible.

The head of the commission said that Russia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Iran and Bulgaria would be Cuba's toughest rivals.(Prensa Latina)