Panama City, Panama.-Cuba won its first medal at the 3rd Special Olympiads, being held in Panama, with swimmer Lizandra Utria, one of the six athletes from the island in the competition, winning bronze in the 50 meters backstroke, a performance she expects to repeat at the finals of the 50 meters freestyle at the Eileen Coparropa swimming pool.

The Cuban delegation is made up, besides Utria, by one table tennis player and 4 track runners who will be competing in 100, 200 and 400 flat meters, besides the 4×100 relay. Livia Navarro, an Education Ministry official, told Prensa Latina that the other chances for winning medals are in athletics, considering preliminary results this Monday in the capital’s Rommel Fernández Stadium.

The first Latin American Special Olympic Games were held in El Salvador in 2006, under the commitment of gathering athletes and sport lovers with special disabilities every four years.

Some 800 athletes from 21 countries entered to compete in the 3rd edition of these games in nine sports: athletics, basketball, bowls, bowling, rhythmic gymnastics, swimming, tennis, table tennis and volleyball.

The Special Olympiads are a world movement under the International Olympic Committee, in which more than 170 nations participate.