Triplist Liadagmis Povea shines at Paris Meeting

Triple jumper Liadagmis Povea was unreachable at the Paris 2023 Indoor Athletic Meeting, thus continuing to lead the Cuban harvest in that specialty in the current winter campaign.

The City of Light once again witnessed a Cuban one-two, as Povea's winning jump (14.26 meters) was followed by that of Leyanis Perez (14.18), who a few days earlier had also won in the French city of Mondeville with 14.48 meters.

Under the orders of the once stellar Yoelbi Quesada, Povea accumulated three podium finishes this year. She now executed four of the six possible jumps, enough to reign again.

Her successful debut in Karlsruhe, Germany, with a personal indoor record of 14.64 meters, was followed by a second place with 14.39 in Mondeville, which is evidence of her consistency in this indoor campaign.

Her teammate Leyanis has demonstrated the same under the guidance of Ricardo Ponce, who now designed a strategy of only three jumps, leaving Turkey's Tugba Danismaz (14.13 meters) in third place.

Leyanis will again complete a sequence of jumps next Wednesday in the French town of Liévin, where she will once again duel with Povea. That meeting will be one of the gold-standard stops of the World Atletics Indoor Tour 2023, so it is expected the attendance of other good level rivals.

This Saturday in the French capital there was also Cuban presence in the men's triple jump and one of the winners was the world indoor champion, Lazaro Martinez.

The Guantanamo native jumped 17.24 meters and seconded on the podium Hugues Fabrice Zango, from Burkina Faso, who nailed his spikes at 17.43 meters from the board.

Lazaro had two other attempts of 17.00 and 17.02 meters, in addition to three consecutive misses, which suggests that he was adjusting the entry to the board to look for better records.

Third place went to Cuba's Andy Díaz with 16.91 meters, although his results do not pay tribute to the island's athletics federation.

Cristian Nápoles completed the Cuban presence with a fifth place and a mark of 16.22 meters. It is worth mentioning that he was the last to join the group that fulfills commitments in the winter season and is going through a process of adaptation to the change of scenery.

Also on French soil, the Metz 2023 Indoor Athletics Meeting was held this Saturday, where Cuban long jumper Maikel Vidal came in third place. With three jumps executed, the best for him was a 7.73 meters. Ahead of him finished American Marquis Dendy (8.01) and Romanian Gabriel Bitan (7.94).

On Tuesday, the focus will return to the high jump with Luis Enrique Zayas, registered for the international meeting in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia. There he could try to clear 2.30 meters, a goal set for the current season.

The best record of the Pan American champion of Lima 2019 this year has been the 2.27 achieved in Hustopece, Czech Republic, where, curiously, he did not climb the podium. He did in his other three competitions.