Sibelis Veranes

Sibelis Veranes Morell (born February 5, 1974 in Santiago de Cuba ) is a former Cuban judoka . She won the 2000 Olympic gold medal in the women's middleweight division.

Athletic career

The 1.64 m tall Odalis Revé competed in the middleweight division throughout her career. At the Cuban national championships from 1988 to 1994 Odalis Revé had won, behind Veranes finished second four times from 1991. Veranes won the title from 1995 to 2000.

In the fall of 1996, Veranes won the title at the Pan American Championships. In January 1997, the Cubans won the World Team Championships. In February Veranes won their first World Cup tournament in Leonding. Her second title at the Pan American Championships followed in the summer. In 1998 she won the Tournoi de Paris and the Pan-American Championships, the Cubans defended their title at the World Team Championships.

In the summer of 1999, Sibelis Veranes won three titles in a row. At the 1999 Summer Universiade , she defeated the Japanese Miki Amao in the final . In the 1999 Pan American Games final, she defeated Venezuela's Xiomara Griffith . Eventually she won the title at the World Championships in Birmingham when she beat Belgian Ulla Werbrouck in the final.

In February 2000, she lost her opening match at the Tournoi de Paris against Miki Amao. Then she won four of five World Cup tournaments in February and March, only at the Polish Open in Warsaw she was defeated by the Czech Andrea Pažoutová in the final. At the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney , she successively defeated the German Yvonne Wansart , the American Sandra Bacher and the South Korean Cho Min-sun . With her final victory over the British Kate Howey , Veranes secured the gold medal.

In 2002 Veranes competed again internationally. She won the World Team Championships with her team and won the title at the Pan American Championships. After that, her career ended.

Web links

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

Footnotes

1. ↑ Championship results on judoinside.com