Daima Beltran

Daima Mayelis Beltrán Guisado (born September 10, 1972 in Media Luna ) is a former Cuban judoka . She won two Olympic silver medals and was world champion in 1997 and 1999.

Athletic career

Beltrán competed in the heavyweight or in the open class, with her career partially running parallel to the fighting in the same weight classes Estela Rodríguez , so that at some championships one competed in the heavyweight division and the other in the open class.

Beltrán won her first Cuban championship title in 1988 in the open class, at the same championships Florentina Quintana won the heavyweight title before Estela Rodríguez. 1990 Daima Beltrán won the Junior World Heavyweight Championships. At the Judo World Championships in 1993 , Beltrán competed in the open class and took seventh place. In 1994 she won the Pan American Heavyweight Championships and a year later she also won the Pan American Games in 1995 . Also in 1995 she won the Universiade in Fujuoka. At the Judo World Championships in 1995 in Chiba, she lost in the semi-finals of the heavyweight division of the Dutch Angelique Seriese , the fight for the bronze medal Beltrán won against the Japanese Noriko Anno .

In 1996 she won the Pan American Championships, which she repeated in 1997. At the Judo World Championships in Paris in 1997 , Daima Beltrán competed in both classes. In the heavyweight division, she finished fifth after losing in the semi-finals against the French Christine Cicot and then against the Polish Beata Maksymow . In the open class she won the semifinals against the Chinese Yuan Hua and in the final against the Spaniard Raquel Barrientos . In 1998 Beltrán won the Pan American Championships. In 1999 she won a bronze medal at the Universiade both in the heavyweight division and in the open class. At the Pan American Games in 1999 she won the heavyweight division. At the Judo World Championships in 1999 in Birmingham she was eliminated in the heavyweight division against Yuan Hua, in the open class she won the semifinals against Priscilla Marques from Brazil and in the final against the Japanese Miho Ninomiya .

At the Olympic Games in 1992 and 1996 Estela Rodríguez won the silver medal in the heavyweight division; there was never a competition in the open class in women's judo at the Olympic Games. At the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000 Daima Beltrán first appeared for Cuba. After four wins, she lost to the Chinese Yuan Hua in the final and received the silver medal.

At the Judo World Championships 2001 Beltrán lost in the semifinals against the Japanese Midori Shintani , but secured the bronze medal. Four months later, she won the Pan American Championships in both heavyweight and open class, a success she was able to repeat in 2002. In 2003 she won the heavyweight division at the Pan American Games for the third time in a row. At the Judo World Championships in Osaka in 2003 , she lost the semi-finals in the heavyweight division against the Japanese Maki Tsukada and then the battle for bronze against the British Karina Bryant , in the open class she was defeated by Karina Bryant in the semi-finals, but defeated the French in the battle for bronze Celine Lebrun . Beltrán's last major tournament was the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens . In the semifinals she won against the Chinese Sun Fuming , in the final she was defeated by the Japanese Maki Tsukada and received the silver medal like four years earlier.

Cuban championship title

• Heavyweight: 1993, 1997, 2003
• Open class: 1988, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2003

Web links

• Daima Beltrán at JudoInside.com
• Daima Beltrán in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Footnotes

1. ↑ National championships on judoinside.com