Published on Friday, May 29, 2009
HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters) -- US track and field athletes will compete this
weekend in Cuba for the first time in 17 years in what officials said
was a sign of warming relations between the two countries.
Thirteen Americans form part of a field of more than 240 athletes from
15 countries battling for medals in a meet on Friday and Saturday at
Havana's Pan-American Stadium.
US tracksters last competed in Cuba in the 1992 World Cup, but are
returning as US President Barack Obama moves to improve long-hostile
US-Cuban relations following steps last month to ease the trade embargo
imposed against Havana since 1962.
"As an organization, we had an obligation to re-establish friendships in
the Caribbean and re-establish the people-to-people tradition we had
with the Cuban people," Doug Logan, chief executive of USA Track &
Field, which governs the sport in the United States, said in Havana on
Thursday.
"We're in a different season, with the new president that we have, and I
believe that there is a new opportunity with sports," he said in a press
conference.
Logan said talks had begun with the aim of increasing track and field
events between the two countries, which have been at odds since Fidel
Castro took power in a 1959 revolution.
Cuban national sports commissioner Esteban Brice said the US presence
was greeted with "pleasure" and "seriousness" by Cuban officials.
The meet will actually be two events, the Copa America for multi-event
competitions such as the decathlon, and the Barrientos Memorial track
and field tournament.
Organizers said some of the other countries represented at the event
include Brazil, Canada, Chile, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela.
Caribbean Net News: US to compete in first Cuba track meet since '92 (29
May 2009)
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