Cuban skater Adriana Cantillo
Havana, November 6 (RHC)-- Sprinter Adriana Cantillo made history for Cuban skating with 10th place among 12 finalists in the 200 meters at the World Championships in Ibagué, Colombia, the best result ever for her country in the women's category in that sport.
Cantillo, 24 years old and a native of Havana, twice broke the 19-second barrier in the 200 m, first in the qualifying phase (18.906 sec), where she qualified sixth and improved her own national record.
Then in the final she scored (18.997), to get an outstanding tenth place, reported the group specialized in Cuban sports, Team Vívela.
Last February, she had shown signs of her progress in the same Ibagué track, when she won a historic bronze medal in the Pan American Speed Skating Championship, leaving eight-time world champion María José Moya (Chile) off the podium and improving on three occasions the Cuban record in the 100m.
That medal had the added bonus of having returned Cuba to the podium in the women's sector in Pan American skating, after 27 years of waiting.
I feel "very proud to make the country's name sound everywhere. Infinite happiness and a lot of responsibility because I carry with me all the success of a delegation; but that makes me feel more desire to achieve even greater triumphs than this one," Cantillo said after her medal in the Pan American, in declarations to sporthd.news.
Opening that Pan American, the Cuban had achieved a national record in the 200 meters (19.483 sec), a record she improved recently in another competition in Colombia, while developing a training base for the World Championship (19.218).
In Saturday's final, the gold medal went to Colombia's Geiny Pájaro (18.537 sec), followed by Mathilde Pedronno (France, 18.593) and Chile's María José Moya (18.680).
The Cuban delegation to the World Championship is made up of 4 skaters, including Richard Diaz and Hector Ernesto Caballero, who will participate in the Junior Pan American Games in Cali-Valle 2021.
In the World Cup in Ibagué, 344 skaters from 38 countries will compete in 103 events in 11 modalities, added Team Vívela.
