lahabana magazine 7 APR Cuban SPORTS INCLUDING GUIDE TO THE BEST PLACES TO EAT, DRINK, DANCE AND STAY IN HAVANA lahabana. com magazine LA HABANA.COM is an independent platform, which seeks to showcase the best in Cuba arts & culture, life-style, sport, travel and much more... We seek to explore Cuba through the eyes of the best writers, photographers and filmmakers, both Cuban and international, who live work, travel and play in Cuba. Beautiful pictures, great videos, reviews, insightful articles and inside tips. APR 2017 2 lahabana. com magazine APR 2017 3 lahabana. com magazine Cuban sports, its achievements and results, have led Cuba to become a true power in this area, but also to be admired EDITORIAL throughout the world. Many people cannot understand how an island of only 11 million people has been able to achieve so many feats of this nature. They fail to realize that for the Cuban people, the practice of sports is not only a right—it is also an expression of their way of life. In this month’s issue, which is dedicated to Cuban sports, there is something for everyone—from interviews with Olympics athletes to great moments in the history of Cuban sport. If you like traditional Spanish dance And back in Havana, ever since its world premiere in 1981, the musical Cats and music, be sure you don’t miss the has been tremendously popular around the world and captivating audiences La Huella de España Festival (April 2-9) wherever it has been shown. Now, the talented Cuban director Alfonso Menéndez where the rich Spanish cultures alternate shows us his version of the famous musical at Old Havana’s Amphitheater with decidedly Cuban manifestations. (Opens April 29, Saturdays & Sundays). And if you want to know what young Cuban filmmakers are up to nowadays, And in the world of dance, the Ballet Nacional de Cuba will perform pieces the Muestra Joven ICAIC (April 4-9) is from several ballets of their repertoire at the recently reopened Gran Teatro the best event for getting into contact de La Habana Alicia Alonso (April 14-16). with daring and inquisitive works. Be sure to check our listings for art exhibitions, live music, and plays. You are Elsewhere in Cuba, the Festival sure to find something to your taste. Internacional de Cine de Gibara— Abrazos! The LaHabana.com Team former International Low-Budget Film Festival—takes place from April 15 to 21 in the small town of Gibara, in the eastern province of Holguín. Founded in 2003, the festival has carved out a niche for itself in the independent festival circuit as one of the most interesting and authentic. FEB 2017 4 lahabana. com magazine CONTENTS APR 2017 JAVIER SOTOMAYOR, WHAT HAPPENED TO 08 THE PRINCE OF HEIGHTS 54 BASEBALL GREAT MOMENTS IN SIBELIS VERANES FOR 59 THE HISTORY OF CUBAN 17 THE LOVE OF JUDO SPORTS FLYING, HIGHER AND 21 HIGHER 47 27 PUNCH AFTER PUNCH CUBA IN THE OLYMPICS, 21 PAN-AMERICAN AND 33 CENTRAL AMERICAN GAMES GREAT CUBAN SPORTS 08 38 COACHES FROM NATIONAL PAINTING TO NATIONAL 43 SPORT TIPS FOR PARTICIPATING IN 47 CUBAN SPORTS EVENTS AN UMPIRE’S 51 MONOLOGUE APR 2017 6 HAVANA LISTINGS68 The ultimate guide to Havana with detailed reviews of where to eat, drink, dance, shop, visit and play. Unique insights to the place that a gregarious, passionate and proud HAVANA people call home. 85 GUIDE FEB 2017 lahabana. com magazine JAVIER SOTOMAYOR THE PRINCE OF HEIGHTS by Abelardo Oviedo Duquesne and Giovanni Fernández photos by: Mene APR 2017 8 lahabana. com magazine RUMORS We heard a rumor that Javier Sotomayor, the Prince of Heights, wasn’t in Cuba. If that was confirmed then we wouldn’t be able to interview him. So we decided to visit the Ciudad Deportiva where he works these days on the Track and Field Federation’s Technical Commission and as the Vice President of the Cuban Athletic Commission. Standing at the center’s door, we started to talk about if during this new Olympic cycle there would be a high- jumper who would go higher than the actual world’s record of 2.45 meters (for 25 years it has had Sotomayor’s name of it and a rumor was going around that the record would be broken at the Rio Olympics). One of the center’s employees came up to us saying: “Why don’t you ask him yourselves? He’s coming out of a meeting with retired athletes right now.” He pointed over to the right. Indeed, there he was, wearing a shirt and slacks and a grey jacket, surrounded by other athletes …he was walking over to his car. We ran up to him, with all the speed we could muster, and blurted out: “Soto, we want to interview you!” THE MEETING After several days of talking about where the best place to talk to our idol would be, we agreed that it should be the emblematic statue of Christ of Havana. Here were the reasons: The capital city lay at our feet and the blue sky was just a bit closer, good folk to accompany us there, a possible visit to the lovely town of Casablanca overlooking the bay to arrive at the Avenida del Puerto… FEB 2017 9 lahabana. com magazine Even though the meeting was set for nine in the morning, it didn’t happen until 10 minutes later because Sotomayor’s work schedule held him up and we were stuck in a traffic jam for several minutes in the municipality of Calabazar and so we were late in arriving. When he arrived, Javier made the most of the moment to pull out his cell phone and take some pictures of the lovely view and to tell us some stories about athletic fields around the year 1993. Sitting down with the city behind him, the interview began. In this new Olympic cycle, do you think your record will be broken? I saw high-jumpers who were capable of breaking my record during the past cycle. Two athletes stood out in the 2013-2014 seasons. It was the case of Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar and Ukrainian Bohdan Bondarenko. I set a term of up to 2016 for them to break it, but it didn’t happen and I can’t promise you that it will be either of them who will be able to do it now. These days it’s really hard to be at that top competitive level for so long. You can be clearing 2.20m or 2.30m quite regularly, but it’s really difficult to maintain over 2.40m or 2.43mseason after season. In this season there will be others who can deal with the 2.45m mark, but right now I don’t know who they are. APR 2017 10 lahabana. com magazine What’s the high-jump movement like right now in Cuba? Felipe Zayas is the best athlete we have now. He was the junior world champ but this year didn’t start too well for him. He does have a strong point and that’s his speed during the impulse run, which he has to coordinate at the moment of the jump. I think it would be beneficial for him to run faster because it would help his takeoff. I think he could jump 2.30m or higher JAVIER SOTOMAYOR: THE BEST HIGH-JUMPER EVER The height of the lintel of the entrance doorway to the sports museum of Lausanne Switzerland is 2.45m. The executive of the International Olympic Committee wanted to pay tribute to Sotomayor’s jump in Salamanca, Spain during the outdoor season of 1993. Since then, many analysts have been rushing to forecast the possibility of another athlete breakinga that record in the 21st century. Clearly, they could have had other doorways made with specific heights because Javier’s file contains other indoor records: Worlds (2.43 in Budapest, Hungary 1989), Pan- American (2.40 in Mar del Plata, Argentina 1995) and Central American/Caribbean (2.37 in Maracaibo,Venezuela 1998). APR 2017 11 lahabana. com magazine In 1982 at the age of 15, he set the record at the student national games with 2.00m. The next year at a newer version of the same annual competition he cleared the bar set at 2.30m and added another record. On September 8, 1988, when he was just 20 years old, Sotomayor joined the elite track and field ranks because at the Gran Premio Diputación of Salamanca, Spain, he passed the world record by one centimeter (2.42) that had been set by Patrik Sjöberg of Sweden. And he became the fifth record holder in the history of Cuban sport. In the following season, he set other similar records both indoor and outdoor. The first (2.43m) occurred at the indoor Worlds in Budapest, Hungary. The year 1989 went out with a bang with 2.44m. That challenge was met at the Central American and Caribbean Track and Field Championships in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Not with standing an injured foot and the death of his coach José Godoy, he went on setting records in the world of competition. With his new coach, Guillermo de la Torre, he won the gold medal for 2.34m at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Mexico City in 1990 and he got second place in the 1991 Tokyo World Championship with 2.36m. He shared third place with Alexei Yemelin from the Soviet Union (2.31m) at the 1991 World Indoor Championship in Seville, and followed it up with his second consecutive victory (2.35m) at the Pan-American Games in Havana in 1991.