{"id":13901,"date":"2025-09-15T09:41:25","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T13:41:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radioguantanamo.icrt.cu\/english\/?p=13901"},"modified":"2025-09-15T14:44:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T18:44:10","slug":"why-is-cuba-an-endless-source-of-triple-jump-talent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.radioguantanamo.icrt.cu\/english\/why-is-cuba-an-endless-source-of-triple-jump-talent\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is Cuba an Endless Source of Triple Jump Talent?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n
\n

\"TriplistaGuant\u00e1namo.- Last year, three athletes born in Cuba but representing European countries swept the men\u2019s Olympic triple jump podium \u2014 a discipline in which the Caribbean island has historically been a breeding ground for talent.<\/p>\n

Cuba is the traditional powerhouse of Latin American athletics. Over its history, it has accumulated 15 medals in outdoor World Championships in triple jump \u2014 out of a total of 64 medals overall \u2014 along with three Olympic podium finishes.<\/p>\n

At the Tokyo World Championships, where the women\u2019s triple jump begins Tuesday and the men\u2019s on Wednesday, the discipline once again represents one of Cuba\u2019s greatest hopes. This mirrors the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, where Cuba\u2019s delegation earned all of its medals (one silver and two bronze) through the triple jump.<\/p>\n

So what allows Cuba to remain, against all odds, a school of excellence in this event?<\/p>\n

\n

First Stop: Moscow<\/strong><\/p>\n

A key figure in this legacy is Julio B\u00e9cquer Pino, now 84, widely regarded as the father of the Cuban school of jumps. He also served as technical director of Cuba\u2019s national jumps program for two decades (1979\u20131999).<\/p>\n

The story begins in the Soviet Union. In 1964, B\u00e9cquer arrived in Moscow to study Physical Education for five years, specializing in athletics \u2014 specifically the horizontal jumps (long jump and triple jump).<\/p>\n

\u201cSince we were the first Cubans there at the time, in Moscow, we had great privileges. They treated us incredibly well,\u201d<\/em> he recalled in an interview with AFP from Fuengirola, in southern Spain.<\/p>\n

During those years, he worked closely with some of the sport\u2019s biggest names, including Viktor Saneyev (three-time outdoor world record holder and three-time Olympic gold medalist), his coach Vitold Kreyer, and Leonid Shcherbakov, another world record holder and the 1952 Olympic silver medalist.<\/p>\n

\n

New Training Methods<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMy stay in the Soviet Union gave me the chance to learn all the training systems, to study everything. When I returned to Cuba, Shcherbakov was already working as a coach there. He had been my professor, and we reunited,\u201d<\/em> B\u00e9cquer said.<\/p>\n

The USSR-Cuba cooperation of the time facilitated the presence of top Soviet trainers, and the results came quickly.<\/p>\n

Pedro P\u00e9rez Due\u00f1as, a pupil of Shcherbakov, set the world record with a 17.40-meter jump at the 1971 Pan American Games in Cali. \u201cWe were there, and it was apotheosis, it shook the foundations of triple jump worldwide. That motivated me to deepen the work,\u201d<\/em> B\u00e9cquer recalled.<\/p>\n

After another doctoral stay in the Soviet Union, he returned to Cuba and went on to lead the national jumps program for 20 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always remained closely tied to scientific approaches and the capacities of our athletes. At the time, Russian athletes relied heavily on absolute strength. I said Cubans could not produce that much brute force \u2014 but we had speed they didn\u2019t have. We are strong sprinters. So we began focusing on explosive strength and velocity, on refining possible coordinations,\u201d<\/em> he explained.<\/p>\n

\n

More Success in Tokyo?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Over the past four decades, Cuban athletes have frequently appeared on international triple jump podiums, producing stars such as Yoelbi Quesada, Aliecer Urrutia, Yoandri Betanzos, Yamil\u00e9 Aldama, and two-time world champion Yargelis Savigne, among many others.<\/p>\n

At the Paris 2024 Olympics, three Cuban-born athletes shared the podium: Jordan D\u00edaz (gold for Spain), Pedro Pablo Pichardo (silver for Portugal), and Andy D\u00edaz (bronze for Italy). Though none represented Cuba, B\u00e9cquer said he was proud, calling them \u201csuccesses of the Cuban system.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The trio now promises another showdown at this World Championships. At the indoor World Championships in China last March, Andy D\u00edaz already claimed gold, while competing for Cuba, Leyanis P\u00e9rez and Liadagmis Povea won gold and silver, respectively.<\/p>\n

P\u00e9rez arrives in Tokyo as the season\u2019s best performer, though she will face tough competition from Venezuela\u2019s Yulimar Rojas, returning from injury and widely regarded as the greatest triple jumper in history \u2014 guided by none other than Cuban legend Iv\u00e1n Pedroso, who himself was a long jump star in his competitive days.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guant\u00e1namo.- Last year, three athletes born in Cuba but representing European countries swept the men\u2019s Olympic triple jump podium \u2014 a discipline in which the Caribbean island has historically been a breeding ground for talent. Cuba is the traditional powerhouse of Latin American athletics. Over its history, it has accumulated 15 medals in outdoor World […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radioguantanamo.icrt.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radioguantanamo.icrt.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radioguantanamo.icrt.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioguantanamo.icrt.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioguantanamo.icrt.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13901"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioguantanamo.icrt.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13902,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioguantanamo.icrt.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13901\/revisions\/13902"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioguantanamo.icrt.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radioguantanamo.icrt.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioguantanamo.icrt.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioguantanamo.icrt.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}