Yoandri Betanzos (CUB), jumps to World silver in Paris (© Getty Images)
Cuban triple jumping is currently on a tremendous high, three men in the World Final in Paris, coming on the back of wins at the World Youth Championships in Sherbrooke, and the previous year at the World Junior Championships in Kingston.
The present Cuban successes maintain an outstanding men’s tradition which began with Pedro Perez Dueñas’ 17.40m winning World record performance in the 1971 Pan American Games.
The Island’s most decorated triple jumper, Yoelbi Quesada the 1997 World champion and three-time Pan American Games gold medallist, started his 2003 season with a bronze medal at the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham, beating Britain’s Olympic champion Jonathan Edwards on home soil.
The new generation then took up the challenge. Fighting with a Achilles tendon injury, Yoandri Betanzos won the Pan American title in Santo Domingo, while the 30 year-old Quesada had to be content with the bronze.
Two months earlier, 2002 World Junior champion David Giralt became the 15th Cuban in history to jump over 17 metres (17.06). He went on to win the Pan American junior gold in Barbados and improved his personal best to 17.24 in the National Junior Championships.
Three finalists in Paris
The trio of Betanzos-Giralt-Quesada topped their year off in Paris, where they all made it to the final, and so Cuba gained the distinction of becoming just the third country in World Championships history to qualify three men for the Triple Jump final, after the United States (1983) and the former Soviet Union (1987).
In the Stade de France, behind the jumping brilliance of the Swede Christian Olsson (17.72m), Betanzos cliched the silver medal (17.28m), while Giralt who is still only 19 years of age was fourth (17.23) having earlier impressed the world with a 17.31m performance in qualification. Quesada, who was competing in his sixth World Championships final, finished in a very creditable ninth place (16.84m) in the final.
“It is great for our country to have so many good jumpers,” said Betanzos after a training session in Santa Clara, 270km east of Havana. “That way, we can always have three men in the big events. We get along well, we help each other and we are only rivals in the competition.”
Betanzos and Giralt train together under the guidance of the same coach, the former triple jumper Ricardo Ponce. Both athletes are also in their first year of study into sports and physical education at the Higher Institute of Sports and Physical Education in Cuba.
Despite an injury, “I am content with my results, but not my best mark (17.28 best). I won (at the Pan Ams) in Santo Domingo. In Paris at the Worlds, I expected to be in the top five and I returned home with a silver, so I am content with those championships”, said 21-year old Betanzos assessing his season.
Giralt ended his last junior year winning the Pan American junior gold, plus the silver in the Long Jump. He improved his personal best from 16.84 to 17.31, only 0.09m short of the national junior standard, set by Pedro Perez Dueñas in 1971.
“I never thought I could be a finalist in a senior World Championships being 19 years-old. I broke the ice and it meant a great experience for the future. Next time, I won’t be fourth, but a medallist”, confirmed a confident Giralt.
Garcia returns
In 2004 the trio should be re-joined by Sydney Olympics silver medallist Yoel Garcia, who is back to full training after undergoing surgery last year.
“I was out this year, but the new generation maintained the high performances and it has been a great boost in the season leading up to the Athens Olympics”, commented Garcia, who trains with Yoelbi Quesada under coach Sigfredo Banderas’ assistance.
Aiming first at Budapest
After a short break, Giralt and Betanzos started training in late September intent on competing at the World Indoor Championships in Budapest next March, and the Olympics in Athens, next summer.
“We have given more priority to strength training in order to attain a better physical base and avoid injuries. As such, we are now training one month in Santa Clara, where they are doing hill work. They are also doing up to 700 jumps on a peak day”, explained coach Ponce.
“Both Betanzos and Giralt are technically similar, but Betanzos is more powerful. David is obviously more dynamic considering he is two years younger”, added Ponce.
Betanzos, the Paris runner-up admits he needs to achieve better coordination with the first and second jumps. “I am also putting emphasis on speed and combine it with the jumps. If I stay injury-free, I am capable to jumping 17.50-17.60”.
Where as Giralt said, “I still have a lot to improve, especially with my left leg action, but we believe I can jump 17.40-17.50 next season.”
Both jumpers are expected to have four meetings before the Budapest World Indoors (5-7 March 2003). They have never jumped indoors and the winter is much more intense than in Cuba. “They usually achieve their best results in their fifth or sixth competition. Depending of the outcome of the first meetings, we will adapt our training”, explained Ponce.
Women too!
Cuba’s women’s are also jumping exceptionally well too.
Mabel Gay won the Pan American gold, and then took fifth place in the Paris World Championships, after claiming the 1999 World Youth Championships and 2002 World Junior titles. She also bettered her personal best from 14.29 to 14.52 this year.
Gay is followed by Yumay Bicet (14.22) and the juniors Yudelkis Fernandez and Arianna Martinez, silver medallist in the 2002 World Junior Championships.
Then there is Cuban-born Yamile Aldama, the third best triple jumpers of all-time with 15.29 and 15.27 leaps this year, but who since marrying a British citizen in 2000 is involved in trying to change her national allegiance.
Cuba’s best event?
Since Pedro Perez Dueñas achieved Cuba’s first World record in athletics in 1971, triple jumpers have continued a successful path, taking 10 medals in the World (Indoor and outdoor) Championships, and another two at the Olympics.
The tradition also looks set for a bright future as Dennis Fernandez won the World Youth title in Sherbrooke, Canada, last July.
“The Triple Jump is one of the best events in Cuban athletics. We have a good human resources for the 2004 and 2008 Olympics. We now have to prepare to materialise our hard work into World and Olympic medals, as well as setting up the basis for the longer term (2012)”, Ponce concluded.
