Yalennis Castillo

Mayra Aguiar in the blue suit defeated Yalennis Castillo in the 2016 Olympics

Yalennis Castillo Ramírez (born May 21, 1986 in La Melba , Municipio Moa , Province of Holguín ) is a former Cuban judoka . She won an Olympic silver medal in 2008.

Athletic career

The 1.74 m tall Castillo won a bronze medal in the light heavyweight division and in the open class at the 2004 Pan American Championships.

From 2005 to May 2008, Castillo fought in the middleweight division. In 2006 she won the Pan American Championships. In 2007 she won the first of her five Cuban national championship titles. At the Judo World Championships in 2007 , she finished seventh. In May 2008 she lost to the Brazilian Mayra Aguiar in the final of the Pan American Championships in Miami . At the same event, the Cuban Yurisel Laborde won the light heavyweight division, Laborde applied for political asylum in Miami after the championships.

Castillo moved to the vacated Olympic starting place in the light heavyweight division and fought for the rest of her career in this weight class. At the Olympic Games in Beijing , she won four fights and thus reached the final, in which she was defeated by the Chinese Yang Xiuli . In 2010 she lost as in 2008 in the final of the Pan American Championships against Mayra Aguiar, who had also changed weight class. In 2011, Castillo won bronze medals at the Pan American Championships and the Pan American Games . In 2012 she was again subject to Mayra Aguiar in the final of the Pan American Championships. She missed the 2012 Olympics due to an injury and became a mother in 2013.

In 2014, Yalennis Castillo returned to the judo mat. She won the Pan American Championships and finished seventh at the 2014 Judo World Championships . In 2015, as in 2011, she won bronze medals at the Pan American Championships and the Pan American Games . Also in 2016 she finished third at the Pan American Championships. At the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro she was defeated in the quarter-finals by the Slovenian Anamari Velenšek , after a victory in the hoping round over the Hungarian Abigél Joó she was defeated in the battle for the bronze medal of her old rival Mayra Aguiar.

Web links

Commons : Yalennis Castillo  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Yalennis Castillo in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Yalennis Castillo on judoinside.com