• Submitted by: admin
• Sports
• 11 / 05 / 2006

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By MIGUEL HERNANDEZ

The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, and the president of the British Olympic Association, Lord Moynihan, expressed in Havana their desire to consolidate sporting cooperation with Cuba, faced with the Olympic Games in the English capital, in 2012.

Both personalities attended the closing of the IOC Sport for All Congress and Saturday, in keeping with the spirit of this forum of enlarging popular participation in sports, they will attend a cricket match in the Ferroviario stadium, in Luyanó, a game supported by British specialists.

Lord Moynihan is also co-chairman of the United Kingdom Cuba Initiative and next week will head an important commercial mission to continue intensifying the relationships between both nations.

The Olympic leader said that his country intends to jump from tenth place in the medals table to fourth in the Games that they are organizing," for that we would have to take a few medals from Cuba", he joked.

To the question of whether the organizers of London '12 would have liked to host the Olympic baseball tournament, he replied" It is sad to see the withdrawal of a sport. We have always been keen to accept any competition, but that is a problem for the IOC."

Ken Livingstone is on his third visit to Cuba, en route to Caracas on Sunday, where he will be signing agreements with President Hugo Chavez.

"Lord Moynihan knew that I was going to Venezuela and he commented on the importance that I accompanied him to Havana, to this forum by the international sports community, to develop more relationships in this field", he told the press.

The Mayor of London praised Cubas social achievements, and of course in sport, " it is clear that they are doing something well... and I am very interested in knowing how they do it", he said at the Havana Conventions Centre.

Source: Granma