Young Cuban boxers claim eight medals

No gold this time, but future promising for traditional power

BEIJING -- For the storied Cuban boxing program, the Summer Olympics evolved into a glass half-full, glass half-empty conundrum.

The case for half-full: Cuba finished with eight medals, most in the boxing competition, with four silver medals and four bronze. The performance precisely fulfilled the pre-games assessment of Cuba coach Pedro Roque, who hesitated to predict gold for any of his fighters, but said, "I think we can try to win several silver and bronze medals."

And the case for half-empty?

Roque's team returns home with no gold medals. Not since 1968, when they made their summer games boxing debut in Mexico City, have the Cubans not produced at least one champion from any Olympics in which they've participated. (Cuba boycotted the games in 1984 and '88.)

And while the national boxing program of Cuba's largest neighbor would be thrilled with eight medals, it's a major decline from 2004, when Cuba earned five golds, two silvers and a bronze. Of those gold-medal recipients, four went on to pro careers and another retired, necessitating the overhaul for Beijing.

The road here was fraught with other problems. After two boxers defected from the Pan-Am Games in Brazil, Cuba declined to send a delegation to the 2007 World Championships in Chicago.

Furthermore, for the first time since 1972, Cuba failed to send representatives in all 11 weight classes, after light heavyweight Julio la Cruz Perez was eliminated from his Olympic qualifier.

Cuba had two last chances at gold on Sunday. But bantamweight Yanikiel Leon Alarcon lost to Mongolia's Badar-Uugan Enkhbat, 16-5. A half-hour later, welterweight Carlos Banteaux Suarez was beaten, 18-9, by Kazakhstan's Bakhyt Sarsekbayev.

At 21, Banteaux Suarez typifies his team's growing pains. Eight of the 10 fighters who came to Beijing are not yet 25.

"When boxers like Teofilo Stevenson used to fight for Cuba, it was completely different because they had a lot of experience in international competitions," Roque said. "They knew how to handle every situation without losing control. These guys came here with a huge responsibility, a lot of pressure, and they couldn't win gold medals. But they've never given up. They gave their best until the end."

For the first time in a long time, Cuba's fighters didn't enter the ring owning an intimidation edge over the competition.

"Cuba will be OK," said Sarsekbayev, the gold medalist from Kazakhstan. " ... Boxing in Cuba has a good future."