Leyanis Pérez
Havana, August 1 (RHC).- Seven figures of Cuban athletics, including the star triple jumper Leyanis Pérez, will perform this Friday on the new track of the Stade de France, in the second date of the king of sports at the Paris-2024 Olympic event.
Cuba's big attraction will be in the triple jump, where one of the gold medallists will make her Olympic debut, the double world triple jump medallist Leyanis Pérez, second on the world list for the season (14.96m) and winner of three Diamond League stops (Eugene, Stockholm and Monaco).
"We have worked so that she can jump 15.20 (plus-minus 10). If she jumps 15.30, better. But her job is to concentrate on her own thing and forget about the others," her coach, Ricardo Ponce, told Radio Habana Cuba last month.
The runner-up world track champion in Glasgow-2024 will compete in group B and will be the last to take part in the event, where there will be 31 jumpers, with the great absence of the queen of the specialty, Yulimar Rojas. The best 12 will qualify for the final.
Liadgamis (14.73 in the year) will be in Group A and should not have any difficulties in achieving this either. The mark required to be in the final (14.37m).
The first Cuban to appear on the purple track of the venue will be the sprinter Yunisleidy García, in the 100-meter heats. National record holder with 11.08 seconds in 2023, Feliciano Biliers' pupil has not reached any notable marks this season.
Others who will make their debut in Paris will be the eight-hundred-meter runners Rose Mary Almanza and Daily Cooper.
In her fourth Olympic Games, Almanza (1.58.89 in the season) will seek a place among the top three, in a difficult qualifying series in which she will have the opposition of figures such as the French Lamote (1.57.06), the British Gill (1.58.86) and the Kenyan Vivian Chebet (1.58.26).
In another of the six heats, Cooper (22 years old and owner of a time of 1.58.61 this year) will make her Olympic debut. She will have as opponents Nayaki (Uganda) and Prudence (South Africa), both with better times.
The top three in each heat advance to the semi-finals and the rest will go to the repechage.
Discus throwers Silinda Morales (61.46 this year) and Melany Matheus (63.61) will also see action on the day.
The 12 best will advance to the final, in a test where the big favorite is Valery Allman, from the United States.
Athletics began this Thursday in Paris, but outside the stadium, with the 20 km walk events, won by the Ecuadorian Daniel Pintado and the Chinese Jiayu Yang.
