The Dominican Olympic Committee announced this Thursday which athletes will be the flag bearers of the Dominican Republic for both the Bolivarian Games in Valledupar and the Caribbean Games in Guadeloupe.
The karate fighter María Dimitrova and the boxer Alexy de la Cruz will carry the national canvas during the parade at the Valledupar 2022 Opening Ceremony, while the sprinter Fiordaliza Cofil and the basketball player Hamlet Ruiz will do the same at the inauguration of Guadalupe 2022.
Dimitrova, a specialist in the kata modality, has won gold in the last four editions of the Central American and Caribbean Games, and also has the bronze medal in the World Beach Games in Qatar 2019, where she served as the Dominican flag bearer. in said appointment.
She has been recognized six times as Athlete of the Year in Karate. The Bulgarian-Dominican is positioned among the best in the world since 2005.
De la Cruz, who reached the round of 16 at the last Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, was a gold medalist at the Bolivarianos de Santa Marta in 2017 and won a silver medal at the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru in 2019.
He also achieved a bronze medal at the 2021 World Championship and recently won the gold medal at the 2022 Continental Championship of the International Boxing Association.
Cofil, who is classified for the Oregon Athletics World Championship this year, is the champion of the I Junior Pan American Games in the 400 meter dash, and also won silver at the 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games in Barranquilla.
Thanks to the gold won in the Panam Junior in 2021, the native of La Romana qualified for the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile in 2023.
On his side, Ruiz, in 3×3 basketball, was among the top ten scorers in the U18 World Cup in Mongolia 2019, he was part of the team from Quito that ranked fourth in the Pan American Youth Games. He has also stood out in different 3×3 tournaments held in Dominican territory.
The Dominican Republic, which will participate for the third time in the Bolivarian Games, will have a delegation made up of more than 400 people. This multidisciplinary event will be held from June 24 to July 5 in the city of Valledupar, Colombia, and other sub-venues.
For the first version of the Caribeños, to be held in Guadeloupe from June 29 to July 3, the country will have a representation of 59 members.