NSAF hosts Cubans in historic exchange at New Balance Nationals Indoor at the Armory

Four Cuban athletes competed at the Armory in Washington Heights in New York City, in this past weekend’s New Balance Nationals Indoor, as guests of the National Scholastic Athletics Foundation.

The four Cuban athletes—Christian Napoles, Yanna Anay Armenteros, Roxana Gomez and Edel Rogelio Amores—were present along with a coach and a Cuban Federation delegate.Translators were available to facilitate questions with the Spanish-speaking delegation.The Cubans are among the best high school-aged athletes in the world, and all four competed at the 2015 IAAF World Youth Championships, with Napoles and Armenteros winning gold and silver medals, respectively, in the triple jump.

All four also competed for the Cuban team at the Caribbean Scholastic Invitational last June in Havana, along with Team NSAF, made up of many of the 28 top U.S. high schoolers.

At the NBNI, Napoles and Armenteros competed in the boys’ and girls’ triple jumps, respectively, and Gomez and Amores competed in the girls’ 400 and boys’ 200, respectively.

Besides meeting the Cuban athletes and their delegation, a press conference served as a chance to learn about the 2016 CSI, when the NSAF will once again take a delegation of 28 U.S. high school athletes to compete against Cuba’s best youth and junior athletes in Havana, May 27 to 28, 2016. These athletes, from across the country, will be chosen and invited in the weeks after the NBNI.

NSAF officials were on hand to discuss the international competition, as were 2015 participants in the event (CSI alums). Seventeen U.S. athletes who competed in the 2015 CSI as underclassmen also competed at the NBNI this past weekend. Prospective Team NSAF invitees for 2016, who competed at NBNI this past weekend, along with their families and coaches, were also invited to attend the event and festivities.

Among those who facilitated the CSI in Havana and the historic exchange at the Amory is Alberto Juantorena, the legendary 1976 double Summer Olympic champion in Montreal (400 m and 800 m), who is now one of the top Cuban athletic officials.

Nearly 4,000 athletes, from more than 40 states, Canada and other Caribbean nations in addition to Cuba, competed at the NBNI in 94 boys’ and girls’ Championship, Emerging Elite and Freshman events.They included the leading U.S. high school athletes in all but one event and scores of other nationally ranked standouts. Seventeen athletes who have already represented Team USA in World Junior, World Youth and Youth Olympic championships were on hand, as will more than two dozen previous New Balance National indoor or outdoor individual champions.