Officially there will be 19 representatives of Cuban athletics in the nearby Tokyo Olympic Games, to be held from July 23 to August 8.
That group is made up of, among others, the long jumper Juan Miguel Echevarría, the discóbolas Yaimé Pérez and Denia Caballero, the pertiguista Yarisley Silva, the eight-century jumper Rose Mary Almanza and the high jumper Luis Enrique Zayas.
Of those athletes, Echevarría, Pérez, Caballero and Silva already know what it is to win a world title, although in the case of the former, he did it in an indoor joust and was bronze in the open air.
Also outstanding is the female 4 × 400-meter quartet, winner of the gold medal at the World Relay Championships based in Poland, last May.
Yipsi Moreno , national commissioner, confirmed the figure today after the end of the term established by World Athletics, so sprinter Reynier Mena, Jorge Fernández (launch of the disc) and heptathlon player Adriana Rodríguez were left without options.
The athletes of the Antillean nation will go to the Japanese capital with the goal of improving the performance of this sport in Rio de Janeiro 2016, where they achieved a bronze medal through Caballero.
I believe that we can overcome what was done in the previous summer meeting and for that we are working hard, Moreno recently told the Cuban News Agency.
In this regard, the member of the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba, said that the most important thing is that they have the human material and objectively sees that aspiration possible.
Once a stellar exponent of the hammer throw, with a record that includes three golds in World Championships (Edmonton 2001, Paris 2003 and Helsinki 2005), and the Olympic crown in Beijing 2008, the directive, not to mention the color of the medals they could achieve , recognized that there are athletes with the quality and potential to get on the podium in the fight under the five rings.