The Dominican Republic has 14 seats guaranteed in the sport of weightlifting for the Central American and Caribbean Games, to be held in San Salvador from June 23 to July 8, next year.
The information was offered by William Ozuna, president of the Dominican Weightlifting Federation (Fedompesas), who specifies that there are seven male and seven female places in the same number of categories.
The weightlifters obtained their respective places during their participation in the XL Manuel Suárez In Memoriam International Weightlifting Cup, held at the Cerro Pelado High-Performance Athlete Training School, in Varadero, Cuba.
Ozuna spoke during a visit made by the technical direction of the Dominican Olympic Committee (COD) to follow up on the preparation of weightlifting athletes that take place in the weightlifting pavilion, located in Parque del Este.
He highlighted the confidence shown by the athletes in training, while assuring that this delegation will seek to surpass the achievements obtained in the past Olympic Cycle.
“We are confident that we will have a better performance in the current Olympic Cycle. We are going to fulfill what we have proposed to far exceed achieved in the past games”, said Ozuna, in an aside from the training sessions.
In that sense, the superior weightlifters, as well as the youth, will have to show their best efforts for their selection in the national team.
Elites will face new challenges
With the new update in the categories for the 2024 Paris Olympics, the country’s Olympic medalists will have to face new challenges with their weight to participate in those games.
Olympic medalists Zacarías Bonnat and Crismery Santana are among the high-performance athletes who will be affected by the recent weight change in their respective categories.
Bonnat, who won a silver medal in the 81kg category at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, will need to gain about 8kg (89kg) to step onto the platform at the 2024 Paris Games.
“I’m prepared for whatever comes,” Bonnat, a native of Bayaguana, began by saying.
“I feel more comfortable at this weight since I used to compete at 85 kilos. I will take all the positive out of this change. I know that I am going to get less injuries and the best thing about this is that it will be a new experience”, added Bonnat.
Santana, on his side, who won bronze in the 87-kilogram category in Tokyo, will have to face the 87-plus-kilogram weightlifters given the new Olympic rules.
The training sessions are carried out under the direction of a group of technicians led by Héctor Domínguez.