The good news continues for Cuban athletics, as this Tuesday long jumper Juan Miguel Echevarría achieved his second victory of the year on the Underground World Circuit and incidentally established himself as the leader of the season in his modality.
At the Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais rally held in the French city of Liévin, the Camagüey stretched out in his last jump to 8.25 meters, a mark that allowed him to overcome the Greek Miltiadis Tentoglou (8, 21 m) and the Swede Thomas Montler (8.03 m), ultimately the other members of the podium.
The leap sequence of the stellar West Indian grasshopper began with a foul, after which came respective results of 7.91 m, 7.98 m and 7.75 m. Finally, the definitive “leap” arrived that allowed him to go from third to first place in the classification and confirm his progression so far this “course”.
In addition, this jump by Juan Miguel at the Stade Couvert Arena also helped him to overcome the 8.21 achieved on February 7 by the American Marquis Dendy in Fayetteville, Arkansas, thanks to which he was located as a leader of the current athletic campaign on indoor track.
Lester Lescay, the other native of the Island in the list of participants of the long jump, could only hit a jump of 7.30 meters before retiring from the competition and that single effort earned him to finish in seventh place out of nine, for ahead of Belgian Daniel Segers (7.05 m) and French Jean Pierre Bertrand (disqualified).
Places from fourth to sixth were in that order for Brazilian Alexsandro Melo (7.46 m), local Yan Randrianasolo (7.37 m) and Romeo N’tia, from Benin (7.33 m).
Another of the expected events of the date, the women’s 3,000 meters, was dominated by the Ethiopian Lemlem Hailu (8: 32.55 minutes), new leader of the season, as well as the favorites, the Dutch, Sifan Hassan (8: 33.62) and Keniata Beatrice Chepkoech (8: 34.21, new personal record) were relegated to second and third place, respectively.
At the end, among others, the men’s triple jump joust, in which the Cuban Andy Díaz participated, and the pole vault also for men, consisting of an intense duel between the quintet “of the six meters” formed by Renaud Lavillenie, were defined. (France), Armand Duplantis (Sweden), Sam Kendriks (USA), Thiago Braz (Brazil) and Piotr Lisek (Poland).
