Five Cuban Water Polo Players Escape In Mexico

Five Cuban Water Polo Players Escape In Mexico / 14ymedio
Posted on February 16, 2016

14ymedio, 16 February 2016 — Five players from Cuba's women's water polo
team escaped from a training in the Mexican city of Monterrey and
traveled to the United States, local sports officials told the DPA
agency. The news, which had been circulating for days on social
networks, was confirmed on Tuesday.

The escape forced the cancellation of the training and the rest of the
water polo squad returned to the island on Sunday." The Cuban government
did not make any official statement, they simply told the rest of us
(who didn't desert) that they were changing the tickets to return to
Cuba," a team source told DPA.

The Cuban team was composed of 13 athletes and had arrived in Mexico
City in early February to train with representatives of Nuevo Leon. The
athletes were hosted in the Olympic Village of the State Institute of
Sport and trained at the Olympic Aquatic Center University.

"Still today, we do not know if five players deserted, or one trainer
and four players*," reported the Nuevo Leon Sports Institute media
coordinator, Juan Ramón Piña.

"It was unexpected, five left the Olympic Village and no one knew
anything until the team staff confirmed that they went to the United
States," added the manager, who said that the departures occurred
between Tuesday and Thursday of last week.

Between Wednesday the 17th and Friday the 19th, the Cuban team was
scheduled to participate in a local tournament to wrap up its training
cycle. The games are part of a collaboration agreement signed on 29
January between the sports authorities of the state of Nuevo Leon and
Cuba to exchange coaches and engage in test matches.

The flight of athletes came just days after the brothers Yulieski and
Lourdes Jr. Gourriel left the Cuban baseball team at the end of the
Caribbean Series in the Dominican Republic.

*Translator's note: The New York Times reported: "Right now I feel like
the freest Cuban in the whole world," said Rodny Nápoles, 39, a coach of
the Cuban national women's water polo team who crossed into Laredo this
week.

Source: Five Cuban Water Polo Players Escape In Mexico / 14ymedio |
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