Photo: EFE

Havana, February 23 (RHC)-- The dominance of triple jumpers Liadagmis Povea and Leyanis Pérez, along with Maykel Massó's second place in the long jump, marked the Cuban performance at the World Indoor Athletics Tour of Madrid 2023 on Wednesday.

Povea continued "without brakes" and won for the fourth time so far this winter athletics season, this time with an unreachable record of 14.65 meters.

Previous marks of 14.53 and 14.59 meters, which would have been enough to win the competition, completed her performance in a Madrid night that once again gave her teammate Leyanis the role of escort.

The 21 year-old had a best of 14.50 meters, but before that, she had two other good jumps of 14.47 and 14.46 meters.

Third place went to Portugal's Patricia Mamona, Olympic runner-up at Tokyo 2020, who finished with 13.98 meters.

During this year, Povea and Leyanis have participated in five stops of the indoor competition circuit. In all of them they have taken the first two places, with four successes for the more experienced athlete.

Povea, fifth place in Tokyo 2020, reached 30 points in the circuit ranking, which guarantees her the title of the specialty for the second consecutive year.

In terms of marks, this year's performance far surpasses her performances of the previous season. His winning jump of 14.81 meters at the Liévin stop in France went down in the books as his best indoor mark, and in turn as a benchmark in the current campaign.

Leyanis, who has now taken on his first full winter tour, added 21 units to celebrate the second place in the ranking.

In the long jump, Massó set his personal best in indoor events at 8.15 meters, but it was not enough to overtake the Greek Olympic champion, Miltiadis Tentoglou, although he finished with the same mark.

A better second jump of 8.07 meters signed by the Hellenic in his third attempt ended up sending the Santiago native, Olympic bronze medalist in the Japanese capital, to the second position.

This progression could be the first fruit of the strategy outlined by his coach, Daniel Osorio, who expects his pupil to achieve better results in outdoor events starting this summer.

Massó has been testing a new jumping technique during this tour, which allows him to make a greater displacement in the flight phase, and until now he has been in the process of adapting, without being able to surpass eight meters.

In third place was Sweden's Thobias Montler with 8.14 meters, enough to maintain his position as leader of the circuit. 

The long jump will have its last men's competition at the World Indoor Tour Final in Birmingham 2023, in three days.

In Madrid, Keily Pérez also competed for Cuba in the 60-meter hurdles. His record of 8.32 seconds in one of the semifinal heats did not assure him to run in the final.