Juan Miguel Echevarría

Havana, May 30 (RHC) - Cuban Juan Miguel Echevarría returned today to the international outdoor scene with his triumph in the long jump at the Gran Premio Diputación Castellón- Memorial José Antonio Cansino athletic meeting in Spain.

Olympic runner-up in Tokyo 2020, he achieved an excellent mark of 8.24 meters with a first jump that was enough to place him in the lead of the event and is the seventh best record of the current season.

Juan Miguel had a discreet performance in the indoor season with a mark of 7.48 meters in Pombal, Portugal. His performance now leaves him only three centimeters short of the 8.27 meters required as the minimum mark for the World Championships in Tokyo, next September.

That difference is not very significant and it can be assured that with what he did this Friday in Castellón he can already feel among the participants in the world championship.

Juan Miguel, who was world indoor champion in 2018 and outdoor bronze in 2019, has a personal best of 8.68 meters since January 2018. Although he also marked on one occasion 8.92 that could not be homologated due to the downwind of 3.3 meters per second, higher than the 2.0 that is the maximum allowed.

After being almost three years out of the competitive panorama, the Camagüey native returned representing the Cuban federation since the second half of last year, but without achieving records that would assure him to compete in the Olympic Games of Paris 2024.

This Friday, on Spanish soil, completed the podium the Peruvian José Luis Mandros (8.11) and the German Maximilian Entholzner (7.72), in that order.

In a few hours the attention of the Cubans will move to the Hypomeeting in Gotzis, Austria, where the Central Caribbean champion Marys Adela Patterson will be among the heptathlon contestants.

Source: JIT