Havana, January 20 (RHC) - Almost thirty Cuban athletes, including the world champions of the 4x400 relay and heptathlete Yorgelis Rodriguez, will spend a month training in Colombia, ahead of the summer season.

The Cuban Athletics Federation informed that the date of the stay in Medellin (capital of Antioquia) will be from February 10 to March 10 and will include "throwers, sprinters and multi-event specialists".

Although no names were officially disclosed, it is inferred that in the large group will be the world relay champions in Silesia-2021 - Roxana Gómez, Zurian Hechavarría, Lisneidy Veitía, Sahily Diago and Rose Mary Almanza -, as well as the world medalist and Olympic finalist in multiple events, Yorgelis Rodríguez, in her comeback.

The 28-year-old Yorgelis only competed once in 2023 - in javelin - months after undergoing surgery on one of her legs.

Another who is set to reappear after months recovering from injury is 400m Olympic finalist and world champion with the relay, Roxana Gómez (49.71).

For Yunisleydis de la Caridad García, triple medalist in the Pan American Games of Santiago-2023 and new revelation of Cuban athletics, training in the altitude of Medellín (almost 1500m above sea level) should provide her with a greater aerobic capacity, something very positive in her desire to improve her times in 100m and 200m in search of sealing her Olympic qualification.

In addition to taking gold in Chile in the 100 and the 4x100 relay, as well as silver in the 200, last year Garcia broke the national record in the hectometer - he had been doing so for more than 30 years -, setting it at 11.08, just shy of the 11.07 required by World Athletics to qualify directly for Paris-2024.

The group - currently training at the Pan American Stadium in eastern Havana, headquarters of Cuban athletics - also includes world discus finalist Silinda Morales (65.06m), Pan American 800 champion Sahily Diago and continental runner-up in 100 c/v Greisys Roble, all of them with options to go to Paris.

The top five Cuban athletes - Lázaro Martínez, Leyanis Pérez, Cristian Nápoles, Luis Zayas and Liadagmis Povea - are currently traveling to Monte Gordo (Portugal), where they will establish their training base to join the winter circuit in preparation for the Indoor World Championships in Glasgow (March 1-3). In the next few days, long jumpers Alejandro Parada, Maykel Vidal and Aniel Molina will join the team.

Later we will disclose the complete list of the stars that will go to Medellin.