Alejandro Parada
Havana, Feb 2 (RHC) - Cuba's Alejandro Parada won the long jump event at the Three Jumps Meeting in Amiens, France, where his teammate Hayla Gonzalez finished fifth with a good showing.
Parada, who, like his teammate, is making his first incursions into indoor events, dominated with a jump of 7.79 meters, ahead of host Julien Pauthonnier (7.72) and Namibia's Lionel Coetzee (7.50), the current African runner-up.
The Santiago native, winner of the Central American and Caribbean Games of San Salvador 2023, has a maximum outdoor height of 8.15 meters, and on this occasion he had a sequence of 7.52-7.68-7.62-7.59 meters, in addition to a foul.
In the case of Hayla, who has not gone over 6.85 meters in her short career, she closed the competition with 6.41 meters in the fifth attempt.
With less international experience than Parada, and in the process of adapting to new scenarios, she also showed a stability praised by specialists in the modality.
In her sequence, she barely failed in one jump and the remaining ones always surpassed 6.10 meters.
The scepter this time went to Pauline Hondema from the Netherlands with a jump of 6.58 meters, followed by France's Rogilia Bissemo (6.51) and Serbia's Milica Gardasevic (6.45).
The group of Cuban athletes involved in the so-called winter tour has among its main objectives to achieve qualifying marks for the worldl indoor competition to be held in the Chinese city of Najing 2025 from March 21 to 23.
Both Parada and Hayla will have another opportunity to achieve it next February 7 during the Indoor Grand Prix of the City of Valencia, in Spain.
In that meeting they should have the company of triple jumpers Andy Hechavarría, Liadagmis Povea, and Leyanis Pérez.
The latter made their debut in the indoor campaign this Friday doing 1-2 in the Indoor Athletics Meeting of Miramas, also in France.
The next presentation of a Cuban athlete in the recently started European tour will be made this Sunday by the triple jumper Lazaro Martinez.
The world runner-up in Budapest 2023 will make his debut as one of the attractions in the European Meeting, in Val de Reuil, France, where three Olympic finalists are confirmed.
Source: JIT
