:format(jpeg):focal(485x186:495x176)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/gfrmedia/ST6NV6DQHFD6TGSPUZVXEDEQBE.jpg "A Puerto Rican in the final! Roberto Vazquez will be the main referee in the FIBA World Cup gold medal match")
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The Puerto Rican Roberto Vazquez will be the main referee in the gold medal match between Serbia and Germany in the FIBA World Cup 2023 on Sunday morning in the Philippines.
The Quebradillan officer will be accompanied by the Mexican Omar Bermudez and the Latvian Gatis Salins.
Vazquez will be the first Puerto Rican to make a World Cup final match official since Juan “Pucho” Figueroa from Bayamo worked on the clash between Yugoslavia and Russia in 1998 in Greece.
Yugoslavia won by just two points (64-62) before 20,000 spectators at the Athens Olympic Indoor Hall.
For Vazquez this is his third experience in a World Cup. He also whistled in Spain (2014) and in China (2019).
On Sunday, the gold match between the Serbs and the Germans will begin at 8:40 a.m. (Puerto Rico time), while the bronze match between the United States and Canada will begin at 4:30 a.m.
Puerto Rico brought three officials to this edition of the contest. Jorge Vazquez and Johnny Batista were also active in the tournament and all whistled at the crossroads of the best 16 teams.
Only the United States also brought three referees to this World Cup.
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