The silver medal of triple jumper Leyanis Pérez kept Cuba in the medal table at the World Indoor Athletics Championships, after the 2024 edition was held this weekend in Glasgow.

The Cuban athlete arrived at the competition with the best mark of the season (14.86 meters achieved in Mondeville on February 7), 26 centimeters ahead of Thea Lafond, from Dominica.

However, the Dominican achieved the best record of her life with an impressive jump of 15 meters and one centimeter, the only way to surpass the very good 14.90 of Leyanis Pérez.

It seems evident that we are facing the new generation of the women's triple, eager to take the baton when the exceptional Yulimar Rojas finishes her career.

In the case of Leyanis, it’s also worth noting that she overcame several null jumps and that she achieved her mark after her rival left everyone speechless by setting the bar so high, which speaks very well of her strong mind, already shown before.

Unfortunately, while warming up to participate in the competition, her compatriot Liadagmis Povea suffered an injury, the severity of which will be known in the next few hours, and hopefully it will not compromise her participation in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Our other two athletes in Glasgow 2024 were not at their best level: the also triple jumpers Lázaro Martínez and Cristian Nápoles, but as neither of them had exceeded 17 meters in this campaign (16.87 of the Belgrade 2022 monarch was his top so far, for a seventh world position), there’s no cause for alarm either.

At the Emirates Arena the trend stayed the same (even Napoles left early due to ankle discomfort), and the podium went to the three who surpassed that level: the Burkinabe Hugues Fabrice Zango, the Algerian Yasser Mohammed Triki and the Portuguese Tiago Pereira, in that order. Everyone improved what they had previously.

Lázaro finished eighth with a discreet 16.69 that barely contributed one point for Cuba to finish in position 22 in the general classification by countries, in position 20 by medals.

As for the rest of the program, it’s worth mentioning that only five of the 18 current champions managed to keep their titles, and the world records of the Dutch Femke Bol (49.17 seconds in the 400 meters) and the Bahamian Devynne Charlton (7.65 seconds in the 60 meters hurdle race) stood out.

Besides, it was striking the victory of the North American Christian Coleman over his countryman Noah Lyles in the 60-meter flat, and the defeats of Ethiopian Selemon Barega in the 3000 meters (bronze) and the Norwegian Karsten Warholm in the 400, surpassed by the unknown Belgian Alexander Doom.

In any case, this is an event that’s generally taken as a tune-up for the summer event, which is where the real action will take place. In Paris we hope that our triple jumpers improve and climb on the podium.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff