Reynier Mena (200 meters), Lisneidy I. Veitía (800m) and Yulenmis Aguilar (javelin) won gold during the 9th Under-23 North American Central American and Caribbean Athletics Championship held from July 15-17 in San Salvador’s Jorge Mágico González National Stadium, El Salvador.
Mena from Havana gave a solid performance, setting a new personal and national best of 20.41 seconds for the current season, and defeating Stanly del Carmen (Dominican Republic-20.51) and Ian Kerr (Bahamas-20.83) for the gold. This win also saw him qualify for the Olympic Games in Rio this coming August.
Veitía from Villa Clara beat 10 competitors to win the 800 meters with a time of 2:02.02 (59.07 first lap), besting U.S. runner Shelby Houlihan’s 2014 record of 2:04.20. Canada’s Jenna Westaway (2:03.90) took the silver while Sahily Diago (2:04.20) also from Cuba, secured bronze.
Yulenmis Aguilar also set a new record with her 57.09 meter throw in the javelin competition. The 20 year old from Granma defeated U.S. athletes Sarah Firestone (53.96) and Jessie Merkle (53.28) who placed second and third respectively.
Her new record represents a positive achievement given a below average performance this year and having undergone surgery, which placed a big question mark over Aguilar’s hopes for qualifying for the Olympics.
Silver medals went to José L. Gaspar in the 400m hurdles (49.92 seconds), Ariallis J. Gandulla in the 200m sprint (23.36) and Saily Viart in the shot-put (17.42m).
The only athletes on Cuba’s nine member team who failed to secure a medal were Zurian Hechevarría, fourth in the 400m hurdles (57.17) and Yaniel Carrero, who came in third in his heat for the 200m sprint, placing 13 overall with a time of 21.48 seconds.
At the end of the competition Cuba placed fourth on the country medal chart (3-3-1) preceded by the United States (25-26-11), Jamaica (4-4-1) and Canada (4-2-9).
