Making her debut at the Olympic Games, giving the best performance of their life and breaking the national record maintained for over 20 years, are outstanding accomplishments for any athlete, especially if he or she is 21 years old.
This was the feat achieved by heptathlete Yorgelis Rodríguez during the most recent edition of the Olympic Games held in Río de Janeiro, Brazil, where she finished in seventh place after tallying 6,481 points over the seven competition events, a record for Cuba.
Last week, just over a month after competing under the five rings, the young athlete from Guantánamo secured the second best result of her career – 6,373 points – during the Decastar tournament, the final meet on the calendar of IAAF World Combined Events Challenge, held in the French city of Talence, September 17-18.
This result was better than that which saw her clinch the Pan American title in Toronto 2015, where she secured a total of 6,332 points.
During the current season, Yorgelis has shown notable progress, producing consistent results in every competition. If we analyze her results in each heptathlon event, we can see that the she achieved personal bests in six of the seven disciplines; begging the question: Will this be the season in which she really takes off? Let’s review the stats.
Yorgelis has made notable progress in the 100m hurdles securing the best result of her career this year in the Austrian city of Götzis, with 13.52 seconds and 1,047 points; while she crossed the finish line in Río in a time of 13.61. Her best result in 2015 was 13.73 seconds set in the Beijing National Stadium, while 2014 saw her secure a top time of 13.82 seconds.
The 200m sprint is another event in which Yorgelis continues to improve. This year has seen the athlete reduce her time of 24.25 seconds, set during the Toronto Pan American Games, to 24.06 in the aforementioned competition in Austria, a result equivalent to 975 points. Meanwhile Yorgelis stopped the clock at 24.26 seconds in Rio.
The high-jump has been one of the young Cuban’s best events to date, judging by her consistent results. In 2015 she surpassed the 1.86 meters mark on three occasions, achieving a similar result in Río. However, this year has seen her leap over 1.87 meters, also on three occasions; once last week.
Yorgelis not only secured the best result of her life and that of any other Cuban athlete in this sport in Río’s João Havelange Stadium, but also set two new personal bests; in the javelin throw with a fling of 48.89 meters and the 800 meters with a time of 2:14.65 minutes.
She also broke another personal record in the shot put event with a throw of 14.64 meters in Havana’s Pan American Stadium.
The only event in which Yorgelis has failed to show any improvement is the long jump, with a best of 6.35 meters achieved in the Cuban capital, in June 2014.
If we add up her top results in each one of these events, supposing she were to give a perfect competition performance, Yorgelis Rodríguez would have a total of 6,622 points, equivalent to fourth place in the Río Games. Thus, we must ask, how much further can she go?
