Athletics: Cuba's Zayas sets personal best at San Vito meeting

Havana, June 4 (RHC)-- With an outdoor personal best of 2.31 meters (m), Cuban high jumper Luis Enrique Zayas, champion of the Lima 2019 Pan American Games, won the athletics meeting in San Vito, Italy.

Zayas, U20 world champion in Poland 2016, achieved this record in his first attempt, and was only two centimeters away from his lifetime best height (2.33 m indoors).

Ranked sixth at the World Championships in Eugene, United States, last year, and fifth in Doha 2029, the athlete from the province of Santiago de Cuba surpassed in his first attempts the 2.06, 2.10, 2.15 and 2.19 m; while the 2.25 m could do it in his second opportunity.

With this great performance, the Santiago native is in fifth place in the world ranking in the high jump, and sends a warning of his serious pretensions in 2023.

Among his immediate goals will be the Central American and Caribbean Games in San Salvador, to be held from June 23 to July 8.

This Friday, Zayas competed in the III stop of the Wanda 2023 Diamond League in Florence, Italy, where she finished in third place with 2.27m.

Previously, on May 26, she won the Jaen Paraíso Interior meeting, held at the Polideportivo Municipal de Andújar, Spain, a tournament in which she won with a discreet mark of 2.22 m, in what was her international debut in the current outdoor campaign.

Also in San Vito, Cuban Silinda Morales triumphed in the discus throw with 57.35 m, according to the official site of the event.

On May 31 in Montreuil, France, the champion in the V ALBA Venezuela 2023 Games, achieved 61.39 m to stay close to the best achieved by her in the current season.

Precisely in the Venezuelan event, she threw the discus to 61.73 m to win the title.