The Cuban field and track will begin the projected year 2022 and at a good pace. Not only because of the fact that several of our main figures will be making incursions early in the traditional winter indoor tour, with their sights set on the Indoor World Cup in Belgrade, Serbia, from March 18-20; but also for being close to materializing the hiring of four aces with the Spanish club CA Playas de Castellón, which would open many doors not only to them, but also to other Antillean exponents with a view to possible future entries.
These are the long jumper Juan Miguel Echevarría, the discóbola Yaimé Pérez, the Cuatrocentista Roxana Gómez, the eightcentista Rose Mary Almanza, and the tripletist Liadagmis Povea, all with excellent results in the year 2021, which could have been seen as his sports consecration.
On the details of both questions Cuba Yes spoke with the National Commissioner Yipsi Moreno:
Under what conditions does this contract take place?
“The contract has not yet materialized. Although the CA Playas de Castellón Club since last year showed its interest in hiring several of our main figures, and they have even announced it on their website and social networks as a fact, it has not yet been made official.
Certainly, there is a 99% chance of concession, since both parties are interested and through a letter of intent the process began, which should be noted that in the case of our sport it has several specificities that differ from other disciplines, even related with the monetary issue.
Hence, we must sit down to negotiate the terms of the contracts, so that they materialize in the face of the summer season, which would be when our boys start under the protection of the club ”.
What advantages would this rubric represent and what specificities would be considered more rigorously in the light of what you indicate?
“The first thing is to broaden the spectrum of possibilities both in terms of preparation and possible competitive scenarios. We are talking about a prestigious club within the Royal Spanish Athletic Federation.
The fact of being patronized by them will allow them access to a greater group of competitions, to be able to adjust registrations before any possible cancellation of meetings; especially taking into account the complex global scenario due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
We talk about sponsorship, all the conditions, the possibility of hiring with the millimeter monitoring of their respective Cuban coaches; and the monetary issue, which, although in athletics, is not as relevant as in other sports when it comes to contracts, this time it will be equally handled with them.
Being under the protection of the club, and passing through their training period established in Europe, which is the main world athletic scene, grants them not only support, but also a series of conditions that no matter how hard we try, here in the domestic sphere we do not we own them in their entirety.
We are talking about a possible start in the summer very close to ideal conditions, and with the previous reference of Castellón having been the preparatory headquarters of our team prior to the Tokyo Olympics.
Would only those five athletes be in the club’s spotlight?
“For the moment, yes. Initially they also showed interest in the high jumper Luis Enrique Zayas, but due to some setbacks they turned their gaze towards the Puerto Rican Luis Castro Rivera, although perhaps that does not mean the closing of opportunities for Luisito, a very young athlete. and in a frank process of development ”.
It should be noted that track events and jumps generally arouse greater interest in the athletic world, in line with the historical preference patterns of the former IAAF, now World Athletics.
Another important and favorable issue lies in the fact that Castellón works with athletic talent from an early age, so that, in the future, the option of hiring figures who stand out as reliefs in cadet and youth ages would not be ruled out. In addition, the Club is endorsed by a link with Cuban athletes, among which the sprinter Yunier Pérez, the discus thrower Jeniffer Frank Casañas, and the long hurdler Omar Cisneros stand out, just to mention a few.
Look at the protagonists
Before we get into the imminence of the first stops of the winter tour for our figures, we will bring you closer to the four standard bearers who will presumably break the ice in terms of field and track hires under the policy implemented by Inder in September 2013, because It is known that individually many have managed their affiliations to foreign clubs, the most recent case, that of the sprinter Reynier Mena with the Portuguese Benfica.
Juan Miguel Echevarría: There is no doubt that the Camagüey born on August 11, 1998 continues to be one of the greatest talents in universal athletics. He has shown signs of his quality, but for various reasons these have not been entirely constant, nor in total correspondence with his virtuosity.
Although few athletes at his age treasure an Olympic subtitle, a world bronze, the indoor world title, and the Pan American Games scepter in the long jump. Second in the world ranking of his specialty with 1,380 points, Juan Miguel exhibits 8.68 meters in the open air and 8.46 meters on the indoor track as the best records, both materialized in the 2018 campaign.
Yaimé Pérez: There is little to say about the drive and quality shown by this discóbola born on May 29, 1991. The Russian, as everyone knows her, finished with bronze in Tokyo, thanks to a 65.72 meter shot. However, its highest orbit of the previous campaign was 68.99, valid to anchor third of the annual top.
In addition, that same square exhibits the disciple of Hilda Elisa Ramos in the ranking of the planet (1 380 stripes) to which she adds a top shot of 69.39 meters achieved in 2019.
We are talking about a double winner of the Diamond League and queen of the world in Doha, in 2019, more than solid arguments regarding its quality and stability.
Liadagmis Povea: Fifth at the Tokyo Olympics with two jumps of 14.70 in one of the bloodiest finals she has ever witnessed, a world record of 15.67 of the Venezuelan galactic Yulimar Rojas included, Lia can be considered at this point a stable tripler in the elite.
Born on February 6, 1996, the student of the once stellar Yoelbi “El Chispa” Quesada, has 14.93 meters in the open sky, and 14.54 indoors, records achieved in both cases in her notorious 2021, in which she finished fourth in the annual top list. , and sixth in the ranking, backed by 1,292 units.
Roxana Gomez: Born on January 7, 1999, the Antillean gazelle became the second fastest in that segment after Ana Fidelia Quirot, stopping the clocks in one of the semifinals of the Tokyo 400 meters in 49.71 seconds. Said time, which has become a personal mark, earned him the ninth position on the annual list.
In addition to highlighting that as part of a round year, Roxana was champion with the 4×400 post in the Silesian Relay World Championship. Imagine that before that 49.71, and other highlighted times in a definitive takeoff year 2021 such as 50.76 on June 20 in Poland, Roxana treasured the 51.46 achieved in Trujillo, Peru in 2017 as the best record.
Rose Mary Almanza: Another that put his skewers to dance in the double round of the oval last year. With a crucial motivational injection derived from being able to train under the aegis of Francisco Ayala and with his teammate Sahily Diago in Guatemala.
Rose Mary stopped the clocks at 1: 56.28 minutes in Stockholm, Sweden, a time that placed her in a respectable third place among the best of the preceding 12 months. In addition to patenting another six races under two minutes. To which we add the phenomenal 3: 24.04 minutes stamped in the Olympic stadium in the Japanese capital, contesting the 4×400 relay; second of all time inscribed by an Antillean quartet, and together with Zurian Echevarría, Lisneydis Veitía and Sahily Diago.
Winter tour inside
Precisely with the exception of Juan Miguel, still immersed in his rehabilitation process after the injury suffered in Tokyo, the remaining future recruits will see action in a winter season in which the one destined to break the ice will be the high jumper Luis Enrique Zayas in the rally in Udine, Italy, on February 2.
Subsequently, Zayas, who has 2.33 meters as the best indoor level achieved in Banska, Slovakia, will continue with the Hustopeche and Trinec appointments, both in the Czech Republic on February 5 and 8, respectively. That before repeating in Banska Bistryka itself, on February 15, its graceful land.
The paragon Yarisley Silva will also test her abilities on the tour. The London 2012 Olympic runner-up has four competitions planned: she will open on February 3 in the Czech Republic with the Czech Indoor Gala; Then he will play in France the meeting of l’Eure (Val de Reuil), and the Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais (Lievin), on the 14th and 17th, in that order, while the epilogue will be held in Birmingham , Great Britain, on the 19th.
The long jumper Lester Lescay will also fight in Ostrava, with a guaranteed presence on the 12th in the French city of Metz, together with Maikel Massó.
Regarding these confrontation scales, Yipsi detailed that these athletic meetings have already been confirmed for ours, but the number of them could increase, with representation of the triplists Liadagmis Povea, Leyanis Pérez and Lázaro Martínez.
In fact, Lia and Leyanis will break the ice on February 4 at the elite rally in Miramas, France.
Meanwhile, Roxana and Rose Mary will move to Castellón itself, to join the rest of our winter rosters and hence patent their presence in possible confrontations on the circuit, which will culminate in the Belgrade World Cup. In the previous edition of Birmingham 2018, Cuba crowned Juan Miguel Echevarría in the length (8.46 meters), and saw Yorgelis Rodríguez emerge tanned in the pentathlon (4,637 points).
Field and track starts in 2022 fueling full train. It only remains to be surgical in every step we take.
