Shainer Reginfo
Havana, January 25 (JIT) - The increase of rallies in the World Athletics Continental Tour 2023 is just a few hours before the Cubans make their debut in the current winter season.
Sprinter Shainer Reginfo and hurdler Keily Perez will be the island's protagonists in the International Indoor Grand Prix City of Valencia 2023, in Spain, the first of the 16 incursions announced by the National Athletics Commission.
Reginfo, world medalist among juniors, is among the 16 confirmed to run the 60 meters flat in the Palau Velodrom Lluis Puig, while Keily is on the list of 13 women who will seek the prizes in the 60 meters hurdles.
Cuban strategists also intended to register in that event the champion of the I Pan American Junior Games of Cali 2021, Greisy Robles, but she had some discomfort and her debut was postponed.
As explained to JIT by commissioner Rolando Charroo, the ailment is not a cause for concern. However, since it happened at the beginning of the season, it was decided to preserve her physical condition for longer-term commitments.
The group that will take part in the indoor track meets is made up of 10 athletes. The next presentation will be on January 27 in Karlsruhe, Germany, where the triple jumpers Leyanis Perez and Liadagmis Povea will jump.
As for the World Athletics Continental Tour 2023, it was confirmed that there will be 180 rallies scheduled from February 23 to the first half of September.
The series is divided into four levels: gold, silver, bronze and challenger. They are differentiated by the quality of the organization, the rank of their guests and the amount of the prizes. The distribution includes 14 gold, 25 silver, 54 bronze and 95 challenger events.
In the first division, a couple of meetings have been added with respect to 2022 and the first actions will begin in the Australian city of Melbourne on the 23rd of next month.
As a novelty, in the golden circuit, there will be the Grenada invitational, set for April 22 at the Kirani James Athletic Stadium of that Caribbean island. A week later there will also be a debut in Gaborone, Botswana (April 29).
The series will conclude on September 9 and 10 with the Borisa Hanzekovica Memorial in Zagreb, Croatia. Before that, there will be other meetings in which the presence of Cubans has been usual: the Golden Sneakers in Ostrava (June 27) and the Gyulai Istvan Memorial in Budapest (July 18).
More than 12,000 athletes from 159 countries took part in the 2022 continental circuit. According to World Athletics data, two area records, 118 national records and 2,396 personal records were set at its stops.
