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HAVANA, Cuba, May 19, 2016 – The Cuban men’s volleyball team
continues its strong preparation ahead of the Rio de Janeiro
Olympic Games, after being absent in the last three editions of
the quadrennial event.
“The men’s volleyball selection will play more than 25
international matches –officials and friendly,” said Ariel Sainz,
president of the Cuban Federation.
Despite the fact the Caribbean team will be the youngest among
the participants in Rio, Sainz said that teams like United
States, Argentina and Brazil are curious about their quality
jump following the victory over Canada in Edmonton to earn the
ticket to the Olympics.
The Cubans played a friendly series beginning on May 1 with the
Venezuela team that is preparing for the Men’s Olympic
Qualification Tournament.
Now they are already in Mexico, host of the Pan American Cup
from May 21 to 27 where they are determined to win one of the
spots available to the 2017 FIVB World League.
At their return to Cuba, they will be joined by three of their
main players Rolando Cepeda, Javier Jiménez and Osmany Uriarte
who, along with Livan Osoria –the four signed to play in foreign
leagues- to be part of the squad that will meet World Cup
champions United States at Ciudad Deportiva Coliseum from June 4
to 6 to re-start traditional competitions.
“This will be the consolidation of a development strategy from
both federations to get back the fruitful results during the
decade of the 80’s. This times they will visit us, but we think
that in 2017 we will go back to the former structure when we had
matches home and away,” Sainz explained.
“Now we are getting to perceive the positive feelings about the
composition of the Cuban teams and the expectations for their
results, and I think the presence of the fans will motivate our
players a lot, and at the same time it will be a homage to the
efforts and achievements of this sport in the past few years and
to all the followers who have supported them even in their worst
moments,” he said.
“The world knows about the characteristics of the Cubans, who
are determined to face any great team, and that is why they want
to play them, and we are in need to play at that high level,”
Sainz commented.
The men’s team will play in June at the second level of the
World League and before leaving to Rio they will travel to
Buenos Aires where they expect to play at least two matches
against the team of Argentina.
“The most significant part of the process of the Cubans playing
overseas under contracts is the technical growth that is
starting to be evident in the players –men and women- and in the
next season we hope for more stabilization to allow us to
transform our expectations ahead of the next Olympic cycle,”
concluded the president of FCV. |
