Havana/The Cuban jumper Juan Miguel Echevarría reappeared this Saturday in the city of Salamanca, Spain, and won gold by beating the Frenchman Erwan Konaté and the Portuguese Marcos Lara Urbano with 8.24 meters. Meanwhile, in Greece, Jorge Hodelín took third place on the track at the Papaflessia International Meeting, with a record of 8.22 meters, while the Greek Miltiadis Tentoglou reached 8.24 and the Bulgarian Bozhidar Saraboyukov reached 8.26.
“Two performances that reinforce the state of the Cuban long jump on the road to Santo Domingo 2026,” highlighted the specialized media Deporcuba, which has closely followed the performance of the Island’s athletes.
“Echevarría equaled the best mark of the contest with a jump of 8.24 meters,” recalled the official media. Cubadebate, pointing out that the man from Camagüey had been bothered since the Guadalajara Rally, Spain, last August.
The athlete confirms that the knee injury that sidelined him from the World Athletics Championships that took place last September in Tokyo is behind him. In addition, he reaffirms his goal of jumping over the eight-meter mark. His sequence in Salamanca was 7.96 (no jump), 8.24, 7.74 and a last attempt without a mark.
The athlete confirms that the knee injury that sidelined him from the World Athletics Championships that took place last September in Tokyo is behind him.
The athlete has been a reference in Cuban athletics since he was reintroduced to Cuban sport in April 2024. The silver medalist in Tokyo 2020 and indoor world champion in Birmingham (United Kingdom, 2018) left the Island after the event in the Asian country and settled in Spain, supported by Iván Pedroso. After asking to leave the sport in Cuba for “personal reasons,” he finally returned to the island in 2023.
The official press highlighted Jorge Hodelín’s result as the “endorsement of his remarkable state of form” and, above all, his competitive stability. “Without fanfare, Hodelín built his triumph on the basis of security and craftsmanship, establishing himself as a reliable card for the generational change of the specialty,” he published Cubadebate.
“The man from Camagüey remains stable in terms of his marks, since two days before, in Rome, he achieved 8.18 meters, for third place in the Diamond League stop in the Italian capital,” he highlighted. Hit.
In Greece, Lázaro Martínez, double world medalist, finished fourth in the triple jump, with 16.83 meters, a record with which he surpassed his best record from the previous year, of 16.82.
Martínez, the newspaper stated Granma“he achieved his goal on the fifth attempt, after having achieved a jump of 16.61, another of 16.47 and two faults. The test was dominated by the Cuban nationalized Italian Andy Díaz (17.59), followed by the Jamaicans Jordan Scott (17.33) and Jaydon Hibbert (17.02).”
