Yaime Perez secured herself in the discus final and Leyanis Perez debuted with a fourth place in the triple jump at the Oregon 2022 World Championships in Athletics, which this Monday left other emotions for Cuba.
Havana, July 19 (RHC)-- Yaime Perez secured herself in the discus final and Leyanis Perez debuted with a fourth place in the triple jump at the Oregon 2022 World Championships in Athletics, which this Monday left other emotions for Cuba.
The defending champion of Doha 2019 did her homework quickly with a shot of 65.32 meters that assured her a place in the medal discussion.
In addition, the Santiago native signed her best record of a season with few previous events and marked by ups and downs in the preparation.
"I'm happy because I did what I was looking for this first step. It has been a complicated year, I did not achieve marks like in other seasons, but I am motivated and I will go out to give my best and fight for a medal", said the "Russian" shortly after being included among the 12 finalists who will return to the throwing circle of Hayward Field next Wednesday.
Like Yaime, the American Olympic champion Valarie Allman (68.36), the Dutch Jorinde VAN Klinken (65.66) and the Croatian Sandra Perkovic (64.23), among others, also advanced smoothly to the decisive segment. Cuban Silinda Morales, with a record of only 58.73 meters, finished in 16th place.
If the evening was already hot in this city, it was even hotter for the triple jumpers, among them the unbeatable Venezuelan Yulimar Rojas and Leyanis, who was about to give us a surprise that evaporated at the last moment.
There is little left to say about Yulimar. A second attempt of 15.47 meters, which besides being the best in the current world ranking, was enough to leave the rest of the aspirants without any title options. Another two jumps over 15 meters and a couple of faults -she was looking for something more than the triumph- rounded off another day of luxury for the undisputed number one in the world in this specialty.
The young Cuban girl was making her debut in these competitions and was not intimidated. Six valid attempts, all of them over 14 meters, including 14.70 meters, which, besides being a personal best, made us dream of the first medal in this event.
"I was in bronze until the fifth round. The American (Tori Franklin) jumped two centimeters more and I could not go up after that. That's how sport is," said the 20-year-old, happy with what she experienced on Monday.
"The future will be better. I know it's not so difficult, it's possible and I'm going to make it. In the next world championship I will be a medalist", said who undoubtedly represents the future of the triple jump for Cuba.
The silver medal was won by Jamaican Shanieka Ricketts (14.89) and the bronze by the aforementioned Franklin (14.72).
Luis Enrique Zayas could not clear 2.30 meters in the high jump final and finished sixth. The Tokyo 2020 champion, Qatar's Mutaz Essa Barshim, shone with an unreachable jump of 2.37 meters and his third title in these competitions.
For Zayas, the intermediate place in the ranking can be considered a good result, especially because it has been an adverse season for him, with few competitions and contagion of covid-19. He jumped with clarity over 2.19-2.24 and 2.27 before the three faults that left him without options to fight for a more relevant place.
South Korea's Sanghyeok Woo celebrated the national record of 2.35 meters with a silver medal. He is the first from his country with a medal in this event. The bronze medal went to Ukraine's Andriy Protsenko (2.33m). The other Tokyo 2020 winner, Italy's Gianmarco Tamberi (2.33m), left without a medal.
The other event with Cuban presence in the day was the men's 200 meters, in its qualifying phase. There, the hopes of 20-year-old Shainer Reginfo, who was eliminated after covering the distance in 20.80 seconds, were shelved.
In the long-distance finals scheduled for the end of the day, there were true remakes of what happened in Tokyo 2020. In the men's 3,000 meters steeplechase, for example, the Moroccan Soufiane El Bakkali and the Ethiopian Lechama Girma had the same dual meet in the Japanese capital. Although much slower, it was no less exciting.
More than for the time, both of them tried to measure which would have the best finish and once again El Bakkali (8:25.13 minutes) came out on top against Girma (8:26.01) who did not find answers in the final meters. Now it was the Kenyan Conselsus Kipruto (8:27.92) who completed the prize distribution.
Those who did press the accelerator were the favorites in the women's 1,500 meters, as as soon as the starting gun sounded, Kenyan Faith Kipyegon (3:52.96 minutes) and British Laura Muir (3:55.28, her best time of the year) repeated the duel of Tokyo 2020, while Ethiopian Gudaf Tseagay (3:54.52) was placed between them.
