Dominican boxers Yunior Alcantara and Cristian Pinales won the country’s first medals in the Paris Olympics. The win puts the Dominican Republic on the medal list in 59th place.
Yunior Alcantara defeated Billal Bennama from France in the 51 kilos bout to win the bronze. Another bronze medal went to Cristian Pinales in the 80 kilos category when he defeated Nurbek Oralbay of Kazakhstan.
The Dominican women’s volleyball team (ranked 11th by FIVB) moved forward to the second round after defeating eighth-ranked Netherlands 3-1 (25-22, 21-25, 17-25, 26-28). The DR had previously lost to Italy and to Turkey in Group C, regarded as the toughest group. NBC described the Dominican win as “one of the bigger upsets in the tournament so far.” The DR will play Brazil (ranked 2nd in the world) on Tuesday, 6 August.
Marileidy Paulino, running in round 1 and heat 5 of 6 heats, did a time of 49.42 to secure the lead spot in the semifinals. Her personal best is 48.76 and season best 49.20...
