There are passions that unite, dreams that drive us to pursue them through life, to attack windmills, to dedicate hours of insomnia to them… The one I will share with you is that of two friends, with whom I am united, as well as with the protagonist of his history, the passion for athletics.
We arrived at the king of sports by different paths, but the same compass of spikes, times, marks, jumps and throws has united us, makes us help each other, not only through words and letters, but in any other situation that this marathon life presents us.
So I find myself in front of the computer, leafing through the volume Yipsi Moreno, the fury of Agramontebut I also find myself retracing the path of my friends Lilian Cid and Andy Bermellón Campos, its authors, and who accompanied Yipsi on this journey of life from his childhood, beginnings in the beautiful sport, until he said goodbye in his last official competition as active auctioneer.
Yes, gentlemen, Yipsi, the one with the expressive smile, the one from Cuba always swollen with pride on her chest, the exemplary mother, the one with emotions on the surface in the cage, the fibrous one with muscles, but sculpted in the image and resemblance to Apolo, with unusual explosiveness and coordination in his turn, the disciplined like few others and “prodigal daughter” of Eladio Hernández… the current national commissioner, loquacious to the core and equally sensitive.
As well as that image of the goodbye of an exceptional athlete, there was this reunion with lovers of athletics, dear friends of Yipsi such as the once stellar discus thrower Yarelis Barrios, personalities of the Cuban sports movement, relatives of the protagonists and specialized press, who for more than three Five years of a successful sports career and thousands of throws of that hammer practically attached to her body, we accompany her.
According to Lilian, one of its authors, it is a compilation of emotions whose only intention was to show the woman who lives behind the great athlete we all know, and an expression that when you work for dreams, they can become a reality, while dedicating the volume with endearing passion to his little daughter.
For his part, Andy Bermellón pointed out that Yipsi opened the doors of his house to them after his return from the 2013 World Cup in Moscow, in which he finished in sixth position; while he reviewed that during more than 70 hours of interview they achieved an approach to a great woman, about whom there is still much to say.
He recounted the anecdote of hearing the news of Aksana Miankova’s doping, which gave Yipsi Beijing 2008 Olympic gold: around 10 p.m., Yipsi called them in a mixture of mixed feelings of joy and sadness, denoting a indescribable humility and sensitivity.
We continue traveling, with spiked shoes, as if reflecting the incidents of an epic battle in the Pan-American Stadium, the Parisian Saint Dennis, the Tokyo Olympic, or the majestic Muscovite Luznhiki in question.
There is Yipsi, now on the podium, taking a look at her son Abdel, her greatest prize without question, thanking her friends, family, the Cuban sports movement, and all the people who respect and admire her. There are Lilian and Andy, friends in journalism, creators of Deporcuba and Cubans with a humility that few possess and many should carry in their backpacks.
I am on the other side, trying to behave with these lines at the height of the moment, to continue witnessing successful spins and throws like that top 76.62 meters and achieved on September 9, 2008 in Zagreb, Croatia; a year 2008 of many joys for the auctioneer from Camagüey. And a presentation stage of the magnitude of the Fidel Castro Center.
A sprint on indoor court with Lilian
When asked about the sensations and the most gratifying things that this book leaves my colleague Lilian Cid, she expressed that:
«Without a doubt, that it has become a reality is the most gratifying thing. It is the book by and about Yipsi Moreno, but it can be the story of any high-performance athlete with an outstanding career, or even not necessarily.
On the impasto and the fact of writing four hands with Andy, he stressed:
«With Andy I am united by more than ten years of friendship based on sincerity, on complementing each other and, above all, on having worked together for so long for the same interest, with dreams in common such as the Deporcuba blog, and that this book has also made the functional chemistry. I would not be able to give you many reasons because we are totally different, but we have and have managed to focus our ideas on the same goal and we have managed to bring it to a successful conclusion.
—Why athletics and why Yipsi Moreno for this first volume?
When I started taking this hobby of journalism with a little more seriousness, I wanted to border on professionalism in what I did, I had to opt, journalism is not my profession, and I opted and bet on athletics.
“My inspiration was the Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva, because it is a sport that has garnered countless results in our country. At the time I started, it gave me the opportunity to tell many more stories over others that then monopolized a lot of prominence, such as baseball and volleyball.
«There were fewer people reflecting the events of the field and track that, in addition, I am passionate about. I am a faithful follower of this discipline and I felt that it had to be. Yipsi, by chance or by chance, gave us the opportunity, and honestly, when we looked back at the history of that decade, she emerged as one of the greats, and we tried to take advantage of that opportunity the best way we could.”
And so, from the cage of life, with a shot from 77 meters, we were surprised by this goodbye, between tears, smiles… and fury, from Agramonte!
