The Hayward Field stadium in the U.S. city of Eugene, venue of the Oregon-2022 World Championships in Athletics, brings back good memories for Cuban triple jumper Lazaro Martinez. There, in 2014, he was crowned world champion in the U-20 category.
He added two other triumphs to that award, in the U-18 in Donetsk-2013 and in the U-20 in Bydgoszcz-2016. In the latter, Luis Enrique Zayas (high jump) and Maykel Massó (long jump) also climbed to the top of the podium, and they are also going to be in Eugene.
After three years away from competitions, Martínez achieved his first world senior title when he won the world indoor competition in Belgrade, with a personal best of 17.64 meters. "He came from the junior cateories with very good prospects, and after that absence he has been working, especially the discipline, hence the result in Belgrade," said his coach Yoelbi Quesada.
"In a general sense, the preparation has gone well. We finished the first macrocycle with the world indoor title. We started the second one at the Ibero-American, where he fulfilled expectations, winning with 17.30 meters, his best outdoor mark of the season," added Quesada, who crowned himself world champion in 1997.
"We have tried to get him to join the elite and, so far, he has done very well. The results will come with the competitions. A talent like him needs more confidence than training because if he arrives in good shape he will do well," Quesada said.
The Cuban delegation that will participate in the World Championship travelled to the United States on Tuesday July 12, with the exception of Yorgelis Rodríguez, who presented discomfort in one of her knees. In declarations to sports newspaper Jit, national commissioner Yipsi Moreno explained that "taking into account the opinion of the athlete and her coach, the criteria of the doctors and the evaluation of the technical commission, it was decided to cancel her participation in the competition."
