Cubans Cooper and Povea with good performances at Sotteville-lès-Roue Meeting

HAVANA, Cuba, Jul 8 (ACN) Cubans Daily Cooper and Liadagmis Povea won bronze medals at the Sotteville-lès-Rouen International Meeting, held in France, as part of their preparation for the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.

According to the event's official website, Cooper finished third in the 800 meters with a time of 2:01.54, in a race dominated by Ethiopia's Nigist Getachew (1:59.89). France's Clara Liberman took the silver medal with a time of 2:01.47, just seven hundredths of a second ahead of the Caribbean athlete.

With this result, the Cuban, a semifinalist at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, continues her progress on the European circuit, where she will seek to break the two-minute barrier in upcoming competitions.

Meanwhile, In the triple jump, Povea reached a 14.16 meters -mark on her second attempt, a result that allowed her to remain in the medal zone for most of the event.

However, in the fifth round, Jamaican Shanieka Ricketts, with a score of 14.19, knocked her into third place and then improved to 14.23 meters on her final attempt.Senegalese Saly Sarr took the victory with a jump of 14.41 meters, the only jump above 14.30.

Cuban triple jumper, the 2025 world indoor runner-up, will be looking to rediscover her best form ahead of the year's main event.

At the same athletics meet, Lisyanet Ruiz took sixth place in the 100-meter hurdles, stopping the clocks at 13.20 seconds.The Cuban young hurdler, who had the slowest reaction time of the event (0.189 s), failed to close her final stretch strongly in a race won by the US Rayniah Jones in 12.81 seconds.

Now the Cuban delegation will continue its tour of Europe this Tuesday at the Arcobaleno International Meeting in Celle Ligure, Italy, where Haila Gonzalez will compete in the long jump; Greisys Robles again in the 100-meter hurdles; Roxana Gomez in the 400 meters—in which she recently achieved her best time of the season (50.40 seconds) during the Madrid meet on July 5—as well as Reynaldo Espinosa and Yanisleydis Garcia in the 100-meter dash.

This event is of great importance within the competitive calendar, as several Cuban athletes are still seeking to consolidate their performances and accumulate points that will allow them to qualify for the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, scheduled for next September.