Cuban women to attend World Relay Championship in Poland

HAVANA, Cuba, Mar 23 (ACN) Cuba will participate with five women in the 4x400 meters (m) relay of the World Championship to be held in the Polish city of Silesia, on May 1 and 2, an athletics event to which more than a thousand athletes from 45 countries have already confirmed their participation.

Roxana Gómez, Zuriam Hechavarría, Lisneidy Veitía, Rose Mary Almanza and Sahily Diago were officially registered for the Caribbean nation, according to the digital edition of the sports publication JIT.

The text adds that of those five runners, Zuriam -a specialist in 400 m hurdles- and Veitía were previously in a tournament of this type in Nassau, Bahamas, in 2015, when they were part of the quartet placed ninth.

On that occasion, Yaneisi Borlot and Daisurami Bonne completed the relay to set a time of 3:31.43 minutes, a record that will have to be better this time to fulfill the aspiration of reaching the final.

More recent results indicate that a time of 3:29.84 minutes left them without access to the final at the World Athletics Championships in Doha 2019, and with 3:30.89 they crossed the finish line fourth at the continental multisport competition in Lima, that same year.

The note refers that the best record of a female relay in this quadrennium was achieved in the Central American and Caribbean Games of Barranquilla 2018, where with 3:28.48 minutes Zuriam, Roxana, Almanza and Gilda Casanova won gold.

In recent days Yipsi Moreno, national commissioner of that sport, told the Cuban News Agency that the Cubans will go to that competition in Poland with the objective of guaranteeing the qualification to the Tokyo Olympic Games and the 2022 World Championship.

These are goals that they and their coaches have set, and although the task will not be easy, I know they can achieve it, said Moreno, once a stellar exponent of the hammer throw, with a record that includes three gold medals in world events (Edmonton 2001, Paris 2003 and Helsinki 2005), and the Olympic crown in Beijing 2008.

Precisely in that Chinese city, a quartet from the island set the national record still in force, when Roxana Díaz, Zulia Calatayud, Susana Clement and Indira Terrero ran in 3:23.21 minutes.

According to JIT, in the upcoming event, the Polish hosts, current queens after winning two years ago in Yokohama with a time of 3:27.49 minutes, will try to revalidate the title and be prophets in their own land.

The publication adds that the United States has held the lead in the competition since 2015 in Nassau, where they triumphed with a time of 3:14.39 minutes, during the second edition of these competitions.

In Silesia, medals will be shared in 4x100, 4x200 and 4x400 m in both sexes and, in addition, mixed relays and mixed hurdles relays will be disputed.