2024-04-05 16:30:22
Photo: Facebook
Text: Hugo León
Diamela Puente Salas, a Cuban softball player who defended the island’s colors in several international events at the highest level, died on Saturday night, sports authorities of the Caribbean nation reported.
Puente Salas died of a heart attack, sources explained.
“Today the Cuban sports movement is dressed in mourning as it suffers the loss of the tremendous athlete, best human being, good daughter, good mother and wife,” the photographer from the Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (INDER) wrote on social networks. in Santiago de Cuba, Alejandro Floro Cebreco Duvergel.
The former athlete was only 43 years old when she died. She was a native of Palma Soriano and she dedicated more than two decades to the sport.
He was a member of the Cuban national teams for more than 20 years, and was also part of the only team of the discipline on the island that has competed in the Olympic Games. The feat occurred in Sydney 2000, a competition to which Diamela arrived when she was no more than 20 years old.
In addition to his participation in that Olympic event, his record included two bronze medals in the Pan American Games, obtained in Winnipeg, 1999 and Guadalajara, 2011.
Four medals in the Central American and Caribbean Games also stand out: one gold, two silver and one bronze, as well as one gold in the Cali 2013 World Games, in Colombia.
His retirement came during the Covid-19 period, already close to 40 years of age. Diamela was considered one of the best Cuban softball players of all time.