Mayabeque, Cuba: The history of the table tennis in Güines counts Marta Rosa Báez Gato among its main athletes. She began in 1972 in the Sports Coliseum area, directed by Professor Jorge Luis Quintero Armas, “Yiyo”, who made several players to reach international podiums.
Although she was born in Marianao on January 20, 1960, from a very young age her family settled in Güines and her training as an athlete took place entirely in this city.
She showed such rapid progress that in 1973 she was recruited for the Provincial EIDE. She attended the 1974 and 1975 National School Games, editions in which she won three gold medals (one individual and two for teams), in the 13-14 year old category,
At age 14, she was selected to be part of the Elite National Team. She thus became the first female trained in territories that currently belong to Mayabeque, to be included at that level.
According to Professor Evelio Álvarez, an authority who directed this sport in Cuba and in the Latin American region, Martica debuted in international fairs in 1975. This happened in the 2nd Afro-Asian-Latin American Tournament in Nigeria. She climbed to the podium in the junior category after obtaining an individual bronze medal and later she also competed in the senior category.
Also that year she attends the Caribbean Championship held in Jamaica and stands out for her good results in various modalities. Her track record in first category national championships, always representing Havana, shows 20 gold medals (ten of them for teams, nine in women’s doubles and one in mixed doubles).
In 1980 in Güines, the Best Twelve of Cuba tournament began in both sexes and in at least four editions Marta was proclaimed individual monarch.
In the international arena, she represented Cuba in top-level competitions such as the World Championship held in Tokyo, Japan in 1983, where together with Madeleine Armas, also from Güin, they were among the 32 best at that level in the women’s double modality.
She competed in the Central American and Caribbean Games in Havana in 1982 and won team golds and women’s doubles with the Left-handed Gold, and individual bronze. She had a leading role in the Pan American Games in Caracas 1983 and Indianapolis four years later.
In Caracas she won silver by teams and women’s doubles as well as individual bronze. In the American city, she won silver for the team, bronze in doubles and eighth individual.
For 13 years she represented Cuba on four continents, in which she treasured a large number of medals.
She successfully competed in the Ibero-American Games in Seville and Vigo in Spain and others in our country; she also in Caribbean tournaments in Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Sandinista Brotherhood of Nicaragua; In Europe, she took part in conflicts in Czechoslovakia, Germany and Bulgaria, among others, and in Asia, in addition to Japan, she had a leading role in Korea and India.
Professor Evelio Álvarez and Madeleine Armas, relevant figures in international table tennis, agree that Marta’s brilliant sports career was always based on her discipline, a very willful, phlegmatic, very controlled player. Madeleine, her successor, expresses that she learned a lot from Marta, she always gave her all the help she needed to grow in this sport.
Upon her return from Indianapolis, already mother of her first child, Marta said goodbye to active sports and three years later, on February 6, 1990, the official ceremony was held during the National Championship.
Several times she was selected among the best athletes in Güines and Havana. Among other distinctions or recognitions, she holds the status of Glory of Cuban Sports. Since her retirement from active sports, she lives and works in the capital of our country.
