With four Cuban athletes winning their respective semifinals at the Pan American Olympic Qualifier, Cuba has now qualified all six Greco-Roman weights for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
In this weekend’s event, the top-two from each weight class will earn a bid for their countries to the 2020 Olympics.
Cuba entered the weekend with the 67 kg and 130 kg weight classes already qualified, thanks to medal-winning performances at the 2019 World Championships in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.
Cubans in the other four weight classes advanced to the Pan Am Olympic Qualifier finals on Friday and punched their tickets to Tokyo. They included Luis ORTA SANCHEZ (60 kg), Yosvanys PENA FLORES (77 kg), Daniel GREGORICH HECHAVARRIA (87 kg) and Gabriel ROSILLO KINDELAN (97 kg).
The unofficial team champions from the 2016 Olympic Games, Cuba seeks to continue its dominance, sending a full squad to Tokyo, including returning Olympic champions Ismael BORRERO MOLINA (67 kg) and Mijain LOPEZ NUNEZ (130 kg).
The United States also had four athletes qualify their weights today, advancing to the finals, including Ildar HAFIZOV (60 kg), Alejandro SANCHO (67 kg), Josef RAU (87 kg) and G’Angelo HANCOCK (97 kg).
Other wrestlers that qualified include Julian HORTA ACEVEDO (COL) at 67 kg, Jose VARGAS RUEDA (MEX) at 77 kg, and Yasmani ACOSTA FERNANDEZ (CHI) and Eduard SOGHOMONYAN (BRA) at 130 kg.
At 67 kg, Horta of Colombia was funded by the United World Wrestling Development Technical Assistance program, which allows athletes from developing countries the opportunities to compete at top-level events. Horta’s qualification for the Olympic Games would not have been possible without the support of UWW.
Not only did Horta qualify for the Olympics but he also went on to win gold at the Pan American Olympic Qualifier, defeating Sancho of USA in the 67 kg finals, 4-0.
The finals featured three head-to-head matches between Cuba and the United States: 60 kg, 87 kg and 97 kg.
Orta of Cuba won his third Pan American gold medal on Friday night, defeating Hafizov of USA in a decisive 7-0 victory in the 60 kg finals.
At 87 kg, Rau picked up his second gold medal of the week as two-time U23 World medalist Gregorich was unable to compete, due to injury.
Rosillo and Hancock battled each other at 97 kg for the third time in less than a week and second time for gold. Hancock won in the finals last week, 10-0, but this time, it was Rosillo taking the gold in an 11-8 shootout, making it one of the most entertaining bouts of the night.
Cuba earned another gold medal at 77 kg as Pena dominated Vargas from Mexico with an 8-0 technical fall.
Claiming the title at 130 kg was 2017 World bronze medalist Acosta of Chile, who overwhelmed Soghomonyan of Brazil with a 9-0 win in the finals.
