Cristian Napoles
Havana, June 5 (RHC) - Four Cubans will compete this Tuesday in the Athletic Meeting of Huelva (Spain), which will prestige athletes from 45 countries, including the Colombian Olympic and world medalist Anthony Zambrano.
With bronze category of the World Athletics Continental Tour (WA), in the XVII edition of the meeting will be presented with the endorsement of the Cuban Athletics Federation (FCA) the triathlete Cristian Napoles, the heptathlete Adriana Rodriguez (long jump), and Rose Mary Almanza and Sahily Diago (800m).
Nápoles, 24 years old and a two-time finalist in world athletics championships, will go to his seventh competition of the season, third in Europe, after returning with new energy after a brief absence from the track.
Now under the guidance of his father, the laureate trainer Juan Gualberto Nápoles, the 24-year-old triple jumper has a personal best of 17.34m (May 6 in Havana), only 4 cm away from his personal best (PB), achieved at the World Championships in Doha-2019.
After landing in Europe he won in the meetings of Forbach (17.04) and Pamplona (16.64), both without great rivals and is focused on the Centrocaribes of San Salvador (June) and the World Cup in Budapest (August), to which he is already qualified.
This Tuesday she will have her father's advice close at hand and will be looking to improve her performance against top opponents such as former world champion Nelson Evora (Portugal) and Cuban nationalized Azeri Alexis Copello.
Adriana, 23 years old and Pan American heptathlon champion in Lima-2019, will compete again in one of her favorite events (long jump), in which she holds as the best record of her life the 6.70 achieved precisely in Spain (Cáceres) four years ago.
The Cuban has flown twice this year over 6.60m, although in both cases with the wind at her back, and in the mecca of combined events, the recent Gotzis Meeting, she failed in her three attempts and was out of the top 10.
In Huelva she will have rivals that could "push" her to a good result, especially the American junior world champion and Olympic finalist in Tokyo-2020, Tara Davis-Woodhall, the only woman to surpass 7.00m in the last three seasons (7.14m in 2021).
Almanza (30 years old) and Diago (27) will have among their most notable opponents two Germans who have gone under 2.00.00 minutes in 88, Cristina Hering (1.59.41) and Abigail Ives (1.59.92), so they could propose a fast race in search of the world record (1.59.30).
Although far from their best historical results, Almanza (1.56.28 in 2019 and Diago (1.57.74 in the distant 2014), both have had encouraging results in the season and are two of Cuba's cards for the nearby Salvador Games.
More than 200 athletes from 45 countries will animate the Huelva meeting at the Emilio Martin Ibero-American Stadium, among them seven Olympic medalists and 15 world medalists.
