Juan Miguel Echevarria in the long jump at the IAAF World Indoor Tour meeting in Torun (© Jean-Pierre Durand)
World indoor long jump champion Juan Miguel Echevarria will lead the field in his specialty at the Villa de Madrid meeting, the seventh stop on the World Athletics Indoor Tour, on 21 February.
The 21-year-old Cuban sailed to world indoor gold in Birmingham two years ago and has since gone on to become one of the most exciting long jumpers on the planet, reaching wind-assisted efforts of 8.83m in 2018 and 8.92m in 2019, in Stockholm and Havana, respectively.
His 8.68m outdoor career best from 2018 plants him just outside the all-time 10 in spot No. 11. Indoors, his 8.46m winning effort at the World Indoor Championships two years ago placed him seventh on the all-time list.
Echevarria took the Pan-American Games and Diamond League titles last season, the latter with an 8.65m season's best, before capping his year with bronze at the World Championships in Doha.
Echevarria joins a strong cast of jumpers already announced for the meeting which include two-time world triple jump champion Yulimar Rojas who will face training partner Ana Peleteiro, the European indoor champion from Spain.
Organisers for World Athletics
2020 World Athletics Indoor Tour
25 January - Boston
31 January - Karlsruhe
4 February - Dusseldorf
8 February - Torun
15 February - Glasgow
19 February - Liévin
21 February - Madrid
