Cuban hurdlers qualify for the finals in Cali 2021

Havana, December 1 (RHC)-- Cuban hurdlers Ariliannis Colas and Darielys Sentella qualified to the finals of their events in athletics at the First Pan American Junior Games to be held in Cali, Colombia, until December 5.

Colas was the first to secure her ticket by clocking 57.89 seconds (sec) in the preliminaries of the 400 meters (m) hurdles, breaking her lifetime best (58.99).

In heat 1, the Cuban runner was only surpassed by the host Valeria Cabezas (57.53 sec); while in heat 2 Sentella (59.64 sec) reached the finish line behind Brazil's Chayenne Pereira (57.40 sec), one of the serious contenders for the title in that discipline.

On Tuesday afternoon, the first athlete from the island to compete was the sprinter Laura Moreira, who in heat 3 in the semifinals of the 100 meters flat came second to last with a discreet time of 12.12 sec, so she was not included among the finalists. The same happened in the men's hectometer to Jenns Fernandez, who crossed the finish line in 10.76 sec. as fifth in heat 2, leaving him out of the medal contention.

In other results of representatives of the Caribbean nation, in the morning, javelinist Yarobis Contreras finished in sixth place in the first final of athletics, with 66.02 m, in an event dominated by Brazilians Pedro Henrique Nunes (74.41 m) and Luiz Mauricio Dias (71.35 m), winners of the gold and silver medals, respectively.

The bronze medal went to Tyriq Dave Hosford, from Trinidad and Tobago, just two centimeters away from second place, according to the competition's official website.