Yunier Valdivia Rodríguez, deputy director of Sports Activities of Ciego de Ávila, knows well that this territory has the potential to aspire to something more than that 12th place in the country's comprehensive ranking that it currently holds.

“It is not that we believe that we can be among the first three, but it is not an option to sit back, much less seeing how sports with hardly any infrastructure rub shoulders with the best in the nation; that is the case of athletics and swimming. It is evident that the love with which the commissioners, coaches and all of us who, in one way or another, can influence the results decide a lot.”

However, the manager does not stop acknowledging that 2022 allowed the people of Ciego de Avila to reap its fruits, since the collective disciplines set the tone in the national arena. The men's softball and basketball squads are there to confirm it, who returned to lead their respective championships.

Who are the best athletes in Ciego de Ávila in 2022?

2022 is in the ninth inning and deciding who the athletes of the year are in Ciego de Ávila placed the Provincial Sports Directorate, with their respective commissioners, and the specialized press in counting three and two.

“This time soccer was left behind, since it failed to qualify for the Closing Tournament. However, in baseball, fourth place for Los Tigres and second place for Las Tigresas were well deserved, as was fourth place in futsal. The harvest could have been higher, but this year there were no field hockey matches”.

"If we want to surpass ourselves in 2023, there should be no fear of raising the bar more and more," Yunier Valdivia Rodríguez said.

Regarding hockey, Valdivia Rodríguez noted that on February 2, Ciego de Ávila will once again host the national championship, in the women's field, and on the 20th of that same month, it will host the male team.

“There is confidence that we will start the year on the right foot with this sport, which will debut its synthetic field with dugouts already built and other requirements that were missing to offer official competitions. This is the discipline that has given our territory the most laurels and everything that is done will be little to correspond to the seriousness with which their coaches always work.”

─Going back to soccer, tell me about Los Tiburones and the next tournament.

─Once again, it will be a very young team and coach Rolando Ayón Rodríguez will continue to lead. The Opening Tournament will be a very short competition, which will start on February 12. Each set, in the qualifying phase of the eastern zone, will only have seven games, that is, it will be a single round. To aspire to the ticket you cannot start badly.

─Individual sports in 2022 brought a lot of joy…

─The swimming thing was something to highlight, 26 medals won in the pioneering event, 18 in the school categories and 16 in the youth categories. Add to that the 29 in the Marcelo Salado Cup, in all cases record for the province.

“On the other hand, the sails finished second overall and the fight has been stable in recent years; judo has just been sixth in school and boxing shows signs of a resurgence. Don't forget that our first Olympic champion was a boxer and now it is looming that Ronny Álvarez, current junior world champion, could one day climb to the top of a podium in an Olympic event.

─So… can we look optimistically at the sport of Ciego de Avila in 2023?

─Yes, and although I am not saying that we are ready to take a big leap this year, we are working and there is confidence that we will surpass what has been achieved in the one that has just ended. Being satisfied by some achievements would be a cardinal sin. In 2022, in 14 disciplines we are between first and eighth, but if we want to surpass ourselves in 2023 there should be no fear of raising the bar more and more.