Osleidys Menendez in Rio de Janeiro (© Marco Antonio Rezende/COB)
A strong Cuban team, headed by Javelin’s 2004 Olympic champion and World record holder Osleidis Menéndez, has been announced for the May Brazilian events. The most important of those 5 events to take place in the South American nation will be the IAAF’s World Athletics Tour event “Grande Prêmio Brasil/Caixa de Atletismo” that shall take place in Belém on 25 May.
The list of fifteen Cuban athletes will include former World Hammer Throw champion, Yipsy Moreno, along with fellow team-mates Arasay Thondike and Yunaika Crawford. The strong Cuban female throwing contingent will include putters Yumileidi Cumbá (2004 Olympic champion), Misleydis González and Maylín Vargas; Discus throwers Yarelis Barrios (bronze in Osaka 2007) and Yania Ferrales, and two more female javelin throwers: María de la Caridad Álvarez and Janet Cruz. Two triple jumpers will also take part on the tour: Yarianna Martínez and Mabel Gay.
The male athletes, so far confirmed, will be triple jumpers David Giralt and Osniel Tosca. Giralt, silver medalist at the 2008 World Indoor Championships in Valencia, is the man who has jumped the furthest outdoors in 2008: 17.50m, while Tosca was fourth at the 2007 IAAF World Championships in Osaka.
The series of meets, which besides the Belém event will include four other APMs, has been reshaped to fit the schedule of some of the guests. The meets now will be: 11 May, Uberlândia; 14 May, Fortaleza; 18 May, Rio de Janeiro; 22 May, São Paulo, and 25 May, Belém.
From the main Cuban names, Menéndez will compete in Uberlândia and Fortaleza; Moreno and Cumbá, in Rio, São Paulo and Belém, and Tosca and Giralt in all five meets.
The Brazilian series will give us the possibility to watch Menéndez’s first international competitions of 2008. The great Cuban thrower didn’t have a good year in 2007, and that made her skip the Osaka World Championships.
Also the Portuguese 4x100m team is now training in Presidente Prudente, headed by Arnaldo Abrantes. The relay will compete in Uberlândia and Fortaleza, while Abrantes, a 20.48 200m runner, will also run one individual race in the series.
17.28 Triple by Jefferson Sabino
Meanwhile, the South American scene has seen some more interesting performances in warm-up meets for the May events.
In one of those, in São Paulo, on 25 April, the 25 year-old Jefferson Dias Sabino reached a PB of 17.28m (1.5 m/s wind) in the Triple Jump, to also obtain the qualification mark for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Sabino will accompany the 2007 Osaka silver medalist Jadel Gregório, to confirm a strong team. Sabino had a 17.22 previous PB from 2006.
With the Triple Jump scheduled in all 5 Brazilian meets, Gregório has confirmed his participation in all five events. Gregório, a highly popular figure in his country, received the “Ordem de Rio Branco” recognition from President Luíz Inácio da Silva in the capital of Brasília on 29 April.
Other remarkable performances in South America where those of 17-year-old Brazilian sprinter Rosângela Santos, who also on 25 April in São Paulo, ran a PB of 11.43 at 100m. Another one came from Costa Rican 400m runner Nery Brenes.
The 22 year-old Brenes opened his outdoor season with a time of 45.45 at the “Ximena Restrepo” South American GP of 26 April in Medellín. Brenes, fourth at the Valencia Indoor World Championships, has a PB and NR of 45.01 set in the first round of the 2007 Osaka World Championships.
Eduardo Biscayart for the IAAF
