Barranquilla 2018: Colombia seeks to overthrow Cuba and Mexico to consolidate their progress

The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Cycle is already in its competitive phase in the North and Central region of the American continent, with the start of the 2012 Central American and Caribbean Games in Barranquilla, which will take place from July 19 to August 3. 19659002] It is the second oldest international multidisciplinary sports event in the world, just behind the Olympic Games, with its first edition in Mexico, in 1926.

For the edition that starts this Thursday in Barranquilla, 37 countries will meet and a little more than 5 thousand 800 athletes in 36 sports

What is there to see in the game?

Barranquilla is the venue for the Games of Central America and the Caribbean for the second time. The first was in 1946, after those of 1942 were canceled by the Second World War. Moreover, in Colombia, Medellin welcomed them in 1978 and Cartagena de Indias in 2006.

The opening ceremony of this Thursday will take place at the Metropolitan Stadium Roberto Meléndez, home of the Junior of the Colombian Football League and of his national team. Athletics medals will also be challenged in athletic terms.

Barranquilla is a city located on the Caribbean coast of Colombia, with just over one million 200,000 inhabitants. The average temperature in July and August is about 28 degrees Celsius (82 ° F), although it varies very little the rest of the year, with a projected relative humidity of. about 80 percent.

The fight for the medal table

Since Panama 1970, Cuba has finished at the top of all editions, with the exception of San Salvador 2002 and Mayagüez 2010, which he did not participate.

Mexico was the country that was generally the Antillean escort at the medal table, but the prognosis for this occasion is that those who can oust them are the hosts.

Colombia has seen sustained growth in its sport over the past decade. which led to finishing in a better position than Mexico at the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games and the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. In addition, they defeated Brazil at the South American Games in Cochabamba, Bolivia. in May and June

. For Colombia to seek to achieve what Mexico could not do four years ago in Veracruz: defeat Cuba.

If they want to see a world-clbad duel in the context of the Games of Central America and the Caribbean,

at the 2017 London World Championships, the Olympic and World Monarch Caterine Ibargüen was defeated by the young Venezuelan Yulimar Rojas by two centimeters removing the throne that he held during major sporting events (world and Olympic) in London 2012.

The two largest in the world will meet, if this is not surprising, in the final of August 1 at 19:00 (ET). That's right, it's not the context of a World Championship or Olympic Games, but for Ibargüen it's time to take revenge on his people.

Colombian cyclist Mariana Pajón double Olympic champion in BMX, he will not be able to participate in his land because of a forced cruciate ligament operation after a fall of the World Cup in Holland , a few months ago

Without Pajón, the Venezuelan Stefany Hernández, bronze medalist at Rio 2016, is the big favorite to go to the top of the podium.

In addition, the Mexican mariner Guadalupe González Olympic and vice-world champion of the 20 kilometers, and who prevailed at the beginning of May his Chinese rivals in his homeland, at the World Cup of Taicang, did not go to Barranquilla either

The reason was that the quorum minimum of five countries participating in his trial was not completed, it was canceled.