Yahoo! August 17, 2000
Cuban Official Stands by Decision
By Richard Brand, Associated Press Writer.
MADRID, Spain 17 (AP) - One of Cuba's top sports officials stood by his country's decision to ban two Cuban-born athletes from competing in the Olympics for Spain.
Niurka Montalvo, the current world champion in women's long jumping, and water polo player Ivan Perez were refused permission by Cuba to compete for Spain, where they are now citizens.
Under the Olympic charter, any athlete who has competed in an Olympics and changes his or her nationality must wait three years or get permission from their country of birth before suiting up for their adopted homeland.
Montalvo, 31, competed for Cuba in the Atlanta games of 1996, but has lived in Spain for nearly three years. She was granted citizenship last year after marrying a Spaniard.
"This is our final position,'' said Alberto Juantorena, president of the Cuban Federation of Athletics, during a raucous press conference at the Cuban Embassy.
"Niurka abandoned the Cuban team in 1997 when she left (Cuba),'' said Juantorena, gold medalist in the 400 and 800 meters in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. "She is being depicted as a victim, and she is not a victim.
"How are the Cuban people supposed to feel? They have supported her training for 16 years so she can compete under another flag.''
Juantorena vowed to apply the same rules against any Cuban-born athlete who tries to compete for another country.
His remarks come less than a month before the start of the Olympic games, with Cuba trying to draw international attention to what it says is the common practice by rich nations of wooing the best athletes from poor ones.
"Cuba develops talent. It doesn't rob talent,'' Juantorena said. "This is a trafficking of people. Of skin, of muscle, of bone.''
Cuban athletes training in Spain for the Sydney Olympics, including world record-holding high jumper Javier Sotomayor, were told on Sunday by Cuban sports officials to leave Spain.
Montalvo, who had been one of Spain's medal hopes for Sydney, said she was highly disappointed with Cuba's decision.
"I've spent a year preparing for the Games,'' she said. "I meet all the requirements to be at the Games and I don't think it's right that other things prevail over sports matters. I'm only an athlete, not a politician.''
Cuba Extends Olympic Ban
MADRID, Spain 16 (AP) - Cuba notified Spain that it was extending its refusal to allow long jump world champion Niurka Montalvo represent Spain at the Olympics to include Spanish water polo player Ivan Perez.
Spain's state secretary for sport Juan Antonio Gomez-Angulo said Wednesday that Cuban sports minister Umberto Rodriguez notified him of the decision during a meeting at Madrid airport.
Gomez-Angulo said Cuba defended its stance saying it was a "matter of principle.''
Gomez-Angulo said "only a show of generosity'' would change the situation now.
Montalvo competed for Cuba at the 1996 Atlanta Games, but has lived in Spain for nearly three years. She was granted Spanish citizenship last year after marrying a Spaniard.
Perez got Spanish citizenship Oct. 23, 1997. He began playing for Spain several days later. He moved to Spain in 1995, a year after representing Cuba at the 1994 World Championships.
Under the Olympic Charter, any athlete who has competed in any Olympics and changes his or her nationality must wait three years or get permission before competing for their new country.
"We have taken all the steps we could, we can't make any other moves to intervene,'' Gomez-Angulo said. "The Cuban decision is backed by the Olympic Charter, so the government cannot appeal on the basis of any rule.''
The Cubans' veto on Montalvo sparked fury among Spanish sports officials, who last week said they would reconsider relationships with Cuban track and field. They also threatened to break off aid to the Cuban athletes if Cuban sports authorities didn't reconsider Montalvo's case.
Cuba's decision comes a month before the start of the 2000 Sydney Games. International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch said that a solution could only be made at a political level.
Montalvo has said she would appeal to run under the Olympic flag if the matter were not resolved.
Adding to the controversy, Cuban athletes training in Spain for the Sydney Games, including world high jump record-holder Javier Sotomayor, were told Sunday by Cuba to leave Spain.
The 15 Cuban athletes arrived in May in Guadalajara, where they have based their training camp for the past 15 years. They were planning to stay until Sept. 5.
Montalvo represented Spain at the 1999 World Championships at Seville and won the long jump gold medal.
She won the silver at Goteborg, Sweden, in 1995 for Cuba. Her last appearance for Cuba was in 1997 in Paris at the World Indoors Championships.
Top Cuban Players Head to Japan
By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer.
HAVANA, 16 (AP) - Superstars Omar Linares, Orestes Kindelan and Jose Ariel Contreras were among a group of Cuban baseball players who left for Japan on Wednesday to continue training for next month's Sydney Olympics and adjust to the time difference.
The official Prensa Latina news service said the final 24-man Olympic roster would come from the 29-member group that will compete against Japanese teams, and possibly one from South Korea, on the tour.
Baseball has been an Olympic medal sport since 1992, when Cuba crushed the amateur field. The Caribbean nation, which has dominated international baseball for decades, also won the gold medal in 1996.
But the Sydney Games will mark the first time professional players are eligible. Cuba banned professional sports shortly after the revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power 41 years ago and opposes the participation of professional athletes in the Olympics.
Concerns also are high about defections - especially with the communist island's celebrated baseball players. Cuba recently launched a campaign decrying attempts by sports agents to woo the country's top athletes with large cash offers.
Baseball players are among the most likely Cuban athletes to defect, in large part because the financial offers are attractive. American professional baseball teams have long been admired on the island and are followed as closely here as the national teams.
Andy Morales, who hit a decisive homer for Cuba last year against the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards, earlier this summer emigrated illegally to the United States by boat in hopes of hooking up with a major league team.
Linares, a third baseman considered the best amateur player in the world, says he once turned down $40 million to join the a major league organization.
Contreras, who struck out 13 in a victory at the Pan American Games last year, said he has also turned down multi-million dollar offers to defect.
LCI Continues To Move Forward In Cuba
Press Release. SOURCE: Leisure Canada Inc. via BCE Emergis e-News Services
Vancouver, British Columbia
Shares Issued & Outstanding: 33,389,814 Trading:CDNX:LCN Cusip No.:524911104
(BCE Emergis e-News Services) - Leisure Canada Inc. ("LCI'') is the leading developer of luxury resorts in Cuba, with three properties currently under development, highlighted by its world-class multi-destination resort currently underway at its flagship Jibacoa site. Development of these
properties will include construction of 11 luxury hotels, two 18-hole championship golf courses, a marina and related facilities. Le Meridien Hotels and Resorts and PGA Golf Management are strategic partners with LCI in the development of its properties.
Le Meridien Hotels and Resorts, the leading hotel operator in Europe, will design and manage a 550-room resort in the first phase of Jibacoa which will be modeled around the award-winning Le Meridien Forte Village Resort located in Sardinia, Italy. Le Meridien Forte Village Resort has received
numerous travel, business and other service awards during the past 24 years, including the World Travel Awards for World's Leading Resort. The Forte Hotel Group received the TTG Awards for both Top Leisure and Top Business Hotel Company, each of which was awarded in 1999. LCI is proud to have the
exclusive rights to the village concept for Cuba.
PGA Golf Management will lend their expertise to the design and management of LCI golf courses surrounding these world-class resorts, and LCI is equally proud to have the exclusive right to the PGA brand in Cuba.
As part of an ongoing commitment to its investors, LCI has extended the expiry date of 1,250,000 warrants and 147,058 Broker's warrants, which were granted during its 1999 private placement, to July 2001.
For More Information Please Contact:
Peter D. MacLeod JJ Jennex President and Investor Relations Chief Operating Officer
Telephone: (604) 990-9599 E-Mail: jjjennex@leisurecanada.com Or visit: www.leisurecanada.com
The Canadian Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Copyright © 2000 The Associated Press.
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