Boxing legend and five-time world champion Roberto “Mano de Piedra” Durán will be one of the guests of honor at the inauguration ceremony of the expanded Panama Canal on June 26, when it marks 44 years since his first crown, the administrator said today of the interoceanic route, Jorge Luis Quijano.
“The invitation is going to be formalized because we realized that that date is also the date of the 44th anniversary of Durán’s first world championship,” Quijano said today after the raffle in which the ship that will make the inaugural transit of route.
The Panamanian, who was born in the populous neighborhood of El Chorrillo 64 years ago and is considered the best Latin American boxer of all time, won 5 world championships in 4 different categories.
On June 26, 1972, at just 21 years old, Durán challenged the British Ken Buchanan for the lightweight championship of the World Boxing Association (WBA) and won his first world title.
“That day will have a very emotional meaning for Panamanians,” said Quijano.
The inauguration of the expanded Panama Canal will also coincide with the celebration of the International Day for the Preservation of Tropical Forests, established by the UN in 1999, added the Canal administrator.
More than 70 heads of state from around the world are invited to the ceremony.
The Chinese ship Andronikos, which was chosen today through a public draw, will be the one that will transit that day through the new Canal locks, which will allow the passage of ships of up to 13,000 containers, three times more than those that can now pass the the original road, inaugurated in 1914.
The Andronikos, from the Chinese shipping company Cosco, with the capacity to transport 9,400 containers, was chosen through a draw in which the Norwegian company Wallenius Wilhemlsen Logistics also participated, with the Thalatta ship.
The Chinese ship, which measures 48.25 meters in width and 299.98 meters in length, has until May 10 to confirm its participation in the opening ceremony, Quijano explained.
Cosco is the largest shipping company in China and one of the five largest in the world, with 800 merchant ships and an annual cargo capacity of 400 million tons, according to information on its website.
“It is a historic moment not only for the Canal, but also for our company, which is a very young company that has just completed a merger between Cosco Group and China Shipping Group,” the president of the shipping company in Panama, Paul, told Efe. Xu.
The main user of the Panama Canal, through which about 6% of world trade currently passes, is the United States, followed by China and Chile.
The inaugural tour will begin on Sunday, June 26, early in the morning at the new Aguas Claras lock, in the Atlantic sector, and will end that same day in the afternoon at the new Cocolí lock, on the Pacific slope.
One day after the inauguration, regular transit will begin in the expansion of the Panama Canal, whose construction began in 2007 with an initial cost of 5.250 million dollars and will allow the passage of Neopanamax ships.
The expansion was due to have been completed in August 2014, coinciding with the centenary of the Panama Canal, but has suffered delays due to several strikes and a contractual conflict between the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) and the project’s main contractor, Groups Unidos por el Canal (GUPC), led by Spain’s Sacyr.
Former boxing champion “Mano de Piedra” Durán will be honored at the Canal inauguration
