And this is no coincidence. Except for the two men’s divisions—66 and 100 kg—the two continental powers shared all the individual competition titles: seven for the Auriverdes and five for the Caribbean nation.
Cuba continues to dominate the judo medal table in history with 156 medals in the Games (73-26-57), especially since Havana in 1991.
But Brazil is not far away. Up to this century, it has always replaced the island above and has mainly shown results at the Olympic level and the world championships.
“Brazil will come very strong,” almost all the journalists in the mixed zone of the Contact Sports Center today agreed, while the Brazilian colleagues did not stop interviewing their medal partners.
In some divisions, they have presented more than one competitor, and, in addition to a new batch with a lot of talent, for these games, they have recovered the multi-awarded Rafaela Silva.
Cuba, for its part, does not have a full team today because it does not have competitors in the three smallest categories of women.
However, their coaches showed confidence after seeing Iván Silva (90 kg) and Andy Granda (+100) reissue their Lima 2019 crowns this Monday, in addition to the outstanding Idalys Ortiz (+78).
“Brazil has a good team, which always prepares in Europe and Asia, but as always, we will grow,” said coach Yordanis Arencibia, who, during his time as an athlete, faced the Brazilian Joao Derly many times.
For Iván Silva, in the same way, the final with the South Americans has a special taste because “they beat us in Calgary, Canada, a month ago. And now we are here to seek that revenge. ”
We should see which of the two teams gets the most ippones when the central referee calls “Hajime” now.
