The silver medalist in the London 2012 Olympic Games and world champion in Beijing 2015, Yarisley Silva, requested her withdrawal from the Cuban National Athletics Team, published Play-Off Magazine. “A source close to the athlete confirmed the award-winning pole vaulter’s decision” and her coach Alexander Navas also leaves with her.
The decision was reviewed by specialists as a significant loss for athletics on the Island. “The request for withdrawal of the world and Olympic multi-medallist Yarisley Silva, along with her coach Alexander Navas, is one more drop in a glass where there is everything” , posted the journalist from SwingFull Yasel Porto.
“The issue is not what could happen sportingly with Yarita in the future, but that her reasons for her departure include her dissatisfaction with the way in which the Federation has carried out many logistical and other movements related to her and Navas”, added the communicator. “The landscape of the so-called king sport on the Island is increasingly gray.”
Porto regretted the decision, as well as the Cuban sports environment, hard hit by leaks and bad sports decisions. “We are nowhere near having to say EPD to Cuban Athletics, nothing less than the most important sport for us, along with baseball and boxing.”
The decision comes after Silva was left out of the 18th edition of the World Indoor Athletics Championships, which took place in Belgrade (Serbia), due to problems carrying their own poles.
At that time, it was indicated that the Cuban Athletics Commissioner, Yipsy Moreno, explained to the sports site Hit that Silva could not travel directly from Spain -where he was- to Belgrade because the European Union (EU) establishes that with his visa he could not stay for more than three months.
“The issue is not what could happen sportingly with Yarita in the future, but rather that her dissatisfaction is included in her reasons for her departure,” said journalist Yasel Porto
The Cuban athlete had to return to Cuba to go to the capital of Serbia, but then she faced a new setback: her personal pole vaults had remained in Spain.
This Sunday, upon learning of Yarisley Silva’s determination, the sports editor at Radio Habana Cuba, Raúl Rodríguez, shared on facebook that “they should never have said goodbye in that way to the sport that contributed so much for years… they have the applause and eternal recognition of Cubans and lovers of athletics.”
This Pinar del Río native, born in 1987, broke into the headlines of the sports pages as of 2011. During 2015 world champion was proclaimed in his discipline in the spectacular Beijing Bird’s Nest with a jump in which he flew up to 4.90 meters.
On August 3, 2015, she surpassed herself in Beckum, Germany, when she reached an impressive 4.91 meters, her best of the year and national record.
She stood on the podium as the best in: the Diamond League in Oslo 2017 (Norway), 5th International Urban Pole Vaulting Meeting in Mexico 2018, XXIII Central American and Caribbean Games Barranquilla 2018 (Colombia), Sotteville Athletic Meeting 2019 (France) , Lima 2019 Pan American Games (Peru).
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