Tokyo.- Without a doubt the best of the current season in the triple women’s jump, the Cuban Leyanis Pérez It should be the favorite to hang gold on Thursday in the Tokyo World Cupbut the presence of Yulimar Rojas Redefine the hierarchy in this test.
The 29 -year -old Venezuelan star, the best in the history of the test with her 15.74 -meter world record, did not compete in this discipline in the last two years due to a serious injury to the Achilles tendon and therefore the rest has had the opportunity to shine in her absence, which ended on Tuesday with her participation in the Tokyo 2025 classification round.
“For me it is very special because I am going to have a competitor again that level. For me it is a satisfaction to be able to compete again against her. I am going to go out to give everything to achieve a world medal,” Pérez told AFP after accessing the final.
Ibargüen admirer
The young tripler born 23 years ago in Pinar del Río, who grew up having as a great idol to which he was Colombian Olympic and World Champion Caterine Ibargüen, has been able to place this season in the center of the international scene.
Last year he did not take advantage of Rojas’s loss at the Paris Olympic Games and stayed out of the podium, with a very bitter fifth place.
He could at least take it out a few weeks later, winning the final of the diamond league season.
This 2025 has marked its authentic taking of power.
He started in a big way, being a world champion on the track covered last March in Nankín (China) and continued later, revalidating the title in the Diamond League and getting the greatest worldwide of this season before Tokyo, with 14.93 meters.
Four years of waiting
The National Stadium of Tokyo is a place that does not bring precisely good memories to Leyanis.
He should have had his Olympic debut four years ago, when he was just 19 springs, but an injury at the last moment left him unable to compete while already in Japan.
In that 2021, his main man achieved was gold in the Júnior Júnior de Cali Games in Colombia.
In 2022 his name began to sound more strongly and, in addition to winning the Latin American in Alicante (Spain), he was fourth in the Eugene World Cup final (United States).
It was in 2023 when he made the quality leap and climbed to the World Cup podium, with a bronze medal, in a final in which Rojas won gold with anguish, thanks to his sixth and last jump.
Povea, the other trick
This versatile athlete, which had begun in the long jump and the height jump before its skills were detected as tripler, wants to perpetuate the historical tradition of Cuba in the triple jump, the discipline that has given the island 15 medals of the 64 total of its history in the World Cups.
“When you are in Cuba you just have to follow the legacy that already exists, train strong to follow it. When I entered, the Triple School was already very done, there were great tripler and skippers in my country, so you have no choice but to go out to give everything,” Pérez said in his talk with the AFP.
It will not be the only trick of Cuba in the final, since Liadagmis Povea (29 years old) will also compete in it, which was silver behind Leyanis in the “Indoor” World Cup in March.
It was his first big medal of planetary, at 29 years old, and now it also seems with good options to fight for the podium.
