Cuban leader Fidel Castro has threatened to pull his country's boxing
team out of the world championship in the US to prevent fighters defecting.
Cuba would not sacrifice its honour for Olympic gold medals, Mr Castro
wrote in the state-run Granma newspaper.
The championship is a qualifying event for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In
2004, Cuba won the majority of its nine Olympic gold medals in the
boxing ring.
Last month, two Cuban boxers abandoned their team at an event in Brazil.
Guillermo Rigondeaux and Erislandy Lara, both amateur world champions,
were deported from Brazil to Cuba on Monday after their apparent attempt
to defect during the Pan-American Games in Rio de Janeiro.
'Patriotism shall prevail'
Cuban sports officials were considering all options to prevent
defections, Mr Castro said, including sending an alternative team to
Chicago in October, or not sending any boxers at all.
The athlete who abandons his delegation is not unlike the soldier who
abandons his fellow men in the midst of combat
Fidel Castro
"The morale and patriotism of [Cuba's] athletes shall prevail above all
else," the 80-year-old leader wrote.
Sporting success is a matter of national pride in the communist country,
says the BBC's Michael Voss in Havana.
Boxing is one of its specialities and it has produced a long line of
Olympic champions.
But Cuban athletes have in the past used overseas sporting events to
defect, often to lucrative professional contracts, our correspondent says.
'Point of no return'
In the most recent case, Rigondeaux, a double Olympic and amateur world
bantamweight champion, and Lara, a world amateur welterweight champion,
failed to show up for their fights in Rio despite being favourites to
win gold.
Brazilian police detained them last week for overstaying their visas.
German sports company Arena said it had signed a contract with the
boxers, who are forbidden in Cuba to switch from amateur to professional.
But an Arena spokesman told Brazilian media the boxers had later changed
their minds about signing out of fear for their families' safety back in
Cuba.
Mr Castro had initially said the two would be offered jobs in sport upon
their return to Cuba. On Wednesday, he suggested they would not be
allowed to compete for Cuba, saying they had reached a "point of no
return" in Cuba's boxing team.
"The athlete who abandons his delegation is not unlike the soldier who
abandons his fellow men in the midst of combat," he said.
The whereabouts of two other Cubans - handball player Rafael Dacosta and
gym trainer Lazaro Lamelas - who also disappeared during the
Pan-American Games are not known.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/6937929.stm
Published: 2007/08/08 23:44:48 GMT
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