Maykel Massó
Havana, June 6 (JIT) - In a duel with Olympic touches, Cuba's Maykel Massó took third place in the long jump at the Mohammed VI athletic meeting in Rabat, Morocco, where the Greek champion of Tokyo 2020, Miltiadis Tentoglou, once again showed his class and won with a mark of 8.27 meters.
The Hellenic athlete only managed three valid jumps. In fact, only the defining one - achieved on the fourth attempt - was over eight meters, but it was enough to win in a meeting in which Massó did not find his best records.
The Antillean, also third in the summer event in the Japanese capital, registered 8.08 meters in his fifth attempt, during an evening in which his other five executions were below eight meters.
The Cuban had just won in Ostrava with 8.14 meters and it was to be expected that this Sunday he would show superior performances. The Santiago native does not yet have the 8.22 meters that World Athletic considers for a direct inscription in the 2022 World Championships in Oregon, but he is close to ensuring his presence by the score in the ranking.
A leap of 8.13 meters now assured him second place to Switzerland's Simon Ehammer, a multi-events specialist who excels in the long jump and dominates the year's ranking with 8.45 meters.
Cuba was also represented in the event by the triple jumpers Liadagmis Povea and Leyanis Perez, who, without being included in the vanguard, had good performances in a very competitive event, despite the absence of the Venezuelan out-of-class Yulimar Rojas.
Povea finished fifth with 14.27 meters, after four valid jumps over 14.20 meters. Leyanis followed with 14.20 and stability thanks to performances of 14.19 and 14.16 meters.
To access the prizes, an extra was needed this time, like those exhibited by Dominican Thea Lafond (14.46), Jamaican Shanieka Ricketts (14.43) and Slovenian Neja Filipic (14.42 and personal best), who topped the podium in that order.
The fourth stop of the current Diamond League marked the outdoor debut of the year in the 400m hurdles for the Norwegian out-of-series Karsten Warholm, but it ended up being an unhappy debut. The world record holder and Olympic champion barely cleared the first hurdle before retiring, apparently due to problems with his right leg.
In the midst of this panorama, the advantage was seized by the American Khallifah Rosser, who took the first place with a time of 48.25 seconds, which is also a record for the meeting.
Jamaica's Elaine Thompson-Herah did honor her status as Olympic queen and won the 100 meters with a time of 10.83 seconds, shattering her own meeting record by four hundredths of a second.
In the women's 400 meters, the phenomenal Dominican Marileidys Paulino continued to sweep the field, this time with a time of 50.10 seconds. And in the men's 200 meters, the American Kenneth Bednarek led with 20.21 seconds.
The hosts had their compensation in the last event of the day, because the gold medalist in Tokyo 2020, Soufiane El Bakkali, gave his fans the triumph in the 3 thousand meters, by stopping the clocks in 7:58.28 minutes, set as record of the event and leading mark of the season.
The next performances for the Cubans in European competitions will be led by Roxana Gómez (400 meters) and Rose Mary Almanza (800), registered to run this Monday in Hengelo, Netherlands. The specialist of the double oval lap will return to the track next Thursday in the Rome Diamond.
