The aim to increase the number of qualifiers will be based on qualifying performances or ranking placements, as part of a process designed to run until 30 April.

The number of quotas for the Asunción 2025 Pan American Junior Games will mark the agenda of Cuban sport over the next four months.

After the conquest of 54 tickets distributed in five disciplines, the purpose of increasing the number will continue through performances in qualifying rounds or placements in the rankings, as part of a process conceived until April 30.

José Antonio Miranda, Inder’s general director of high performance, told JIT that so far, places have come from handball (14 men), canoeing (5 women and 5 men), cycling (1-2), skating (2-1), volleyball (12-12) and beach volleyball (2-2).

He said that, according to the organisers, 11 other sports will be contested during the new term: badminton, handball (f), hockey, judo, weightlifting, wrestling, taekwondo, shooting, archery, triathlon and sailing.

He specified that seven have not yet released the manuals containing their classification formulas: diving, swimming, artistic swimming, basketball, athletics, tennis and table tennis. Skating, canoeing, volleyball, beach volleyball, artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, handball (m) and karate.

Miranda confirmed that the event, scheduled for 9 to 23 August, will be taken by Cuba as an opportunity to evaluate part of its sporting reserve for the 2028-2032 cycles and boys with the potential to take part in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.

«The objective is to contribute to the continuity of the development of the new generations of athletes, allowing a correct transition to the next competitive level, in addition to achieving the greatest possible number of places for the Pan American Games in Lima 2027,» said the specialist.

In relation to this last aspiration, he recalled that the competition will reward the champions of the individual events and the countries that lead the actions in the team sports, an attraction that marked the founding edition, organised in 2021 in the Colombian city of Cali.

Cuba was then represented by 212 athletes and ranked fifth by country, with a total of 29 titles, 19 silver medals and 22 bronze medals.

Their crowns were won in athletics (9), wrestling (9), boxing (4), diving (2), judo (2), canoeing (2) and table tennis (1).