Havana, Cuba.- Cuba has 476 national athletes classified for the Central and Caribbean Games in Barranquilla, said today Jose Antonio Miranda, director of High Athletic Performance for the Cuban Sports and Physical Education Institute (INDER).

The Cuban sports official pointed out in a press release that the number of athletes will remain up to May 10, but should be widened up to approximately 567 athletes in the coming weeks.

Miranda let known the program of the sports that are still without definition in their respective classificatory events for the Central American Games.

Tickets for sports such as athletics, diving, swimming and tennis are waiting for their definition up to June 18.

He said that according to the Cuban sports specialists, the competitive program for the Central American Games was created for Colombia to be ahead in the medalist position list during the first six days of the Games (from July 19 to August 3).

Because of this, he said that emphasis has been placed on the psychological factor within the preparation of the Cuban delegation.

In that first segment of the event, Cuba has potential titles in 10 of the 18 sports in which the island will compete, he said.

Similarly, Miranda pointed out that in the program of the Games, the Cuban delegation will not participate in 92 events and that for this edition 50 new modalities were included, in which the main options to win are for Colombia and Mexico.

In evaluating the possibilities of fulfilling the objective of revalidating the first place by countries obtained in Veracruz-2014, Miranda argued that Cuba needs at least 120 gold medals.

On the other hand, he stressed that Colombia is seen as the main candidate to fight for the first position, since it has been the country that showed more results in the last four years, with Olympic, world and regional titles in various disciplines.