Lazaro Martinez, winner of the triple jump at the 2013 World Youth Championships (© Getty Images)
Lazaro Martinez became the third Cuban to win the boys’ World youth Triple Jump title as he equalled the 16.63m championships record held by compatriot Hector Dario Fuentes since 2005.
The world youth leader coming into the championships, Martinez lived up to the pre-event expectations, although it wasn’t until the fourth round that he moved into the lead. In fact, Martinez only recorded two jumps over the 16-metre barrier tonight, his winning mark and a 16.05m third-round effort.
China’s Fang Yaoqing added another silver medal to the one he grabbed in the Long Jump with a personal best 16.48m while Germany’s Dimitri Antonov took bronze with 16.02m. No other jumper broke 16 metres tonight although the top eight all set personal best marks.
There was a little disappointment for the home favourite Oleksandr Malosilov who opened with a huge 15.95m PB, a massive 68-centimetre improvement for the Ukrainian who sat in first after the opening round. However Antonov and Fang quickly overtook him with their next jumps.
Simone Forte of Italy in fifth and Pavlo Beznis of Ukraine in sixth set personal bests of 15.71m and 15.70m respectively.
