Madrid (AFP)
Rojas, too far: Venezuelan athlete Yulimar Rojas (24) broke the world record in the triple jump room with 15.43 m in his sixth jump (GOOD: sixth) at the Madrid meeting on Friday evening.
Rojas thus surpassed the previous world record for Russian Tatyana Lebedeva, who jumped 15.36 m on March 6, 2004 in Budapest, 16 years ago. Excellent omen, five months before the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (July 24 - August 9).
The Venezuelan, who for the first time crossed the 15.00 m mark in a big championship, approached only seven centimeters from the open air world record for the women's triple jump, established at 15.50 m by the Ukrainian Inessa Kravets on August 10 in Gothenburg.
"Tokyo is waiting for us in a short time. We will continue to train, stay focused," reacted the Venezuelan, at the microphone of the Spanish television TVE.
On Friday, Rojas, driven by former Cuban length legend Ivan Pedroso, crushed the competition, despite three bitten attempts: with her new indoor women's world record in her pocket, she outstripped her Cuban training partner Liadagmis Povea (14.52 m), second in Madrid, and the Portuguese Patricia Mamona (14.28 m), third.
In full explosion for two years, Rojas had gleaned the world title, the very first for Venezuela in athletics, on August 7, 2017 during the final of the world championships in London, with 14.91 m, ahead of the Colombian Caterine Ibarguren two centimeters.
She followed up with the indoor world title in Birmingham (England) in 2018 with a jump to 14.63 m. Then his second world gold medal in triple jump in October 2019 in Doha (Qatar), with four jumps beyond 14.70 m, and a best test measured at 15.37 m.
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