HAVANA, Cuba, Aug 18 (ACN) The Cubans Ronald Anthony Mencía (hammer throw) and Shainer Rengifo (100 meters) will debut today at the opening of the 18th World Athletics U20 Championships, held in Nairobi, Kenya, until the 22nd.
Mencia will be in the qualifying group B of his event, which requires 74.00 m to access the final of the 12 best. This season he reached 77.20m, his best throw ever, so he should be among the finalists without too much trouble.
Rengifo, in turn, will be in heat 2 of the 100 m race with hopes of advancing to the semifinals. The first three of each heat and the following six best times will be eligible. His best result this year was 10.59 (personal best 10.35).
Cuba will also be represented by javelin thrower Yiselena Ballar, 800 m/p runner Daily Cooper, and Juan Carley Vázquez in shot put.
National commissioner Yipsi Moreno told ACN that triple jumper Leyanis Perez, who had qualified for the recently finished Olympic Games, could not compete in Tokyo and will not be in Kenya because of an injury.
As to her hopes in Nairobi, she said that the first goal would be that the five Cuban athletes achieve their best lifetime marks and make it to the finals. They were part of the Olympic pre-selection that trained in Havana, and Cooper even contributed to the preparation of the 4x400 m/p relay that won the title at the World Relay Championships in Poland last May.
Three years ago in Tampere, Finland, Cuba finished 11th in the medal table (1-1-3).
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