Cuban to have largest ever delegation at World Junior Athletics Championship

HAVANA, Cuba, Jul 18 (acn) 1 512 contestants from 157 countries have confirmed so far their presence in the World Junior Athletics Championship starting on Tuesday in Bydgoszcz, Poland, including 14 Cubans.

If that figure is confirmed after the technical meeting, the contest would be the second most attended in history, only surpassed by Barcelona 2012 (1 566), and leaving far behind that of two years ago in Eugene, USA (1 411).
According to the official website of the tournament, the most attended event is the one of the 110-meter hurdles, where 62 competitors appear, including Cuban Yoan Villa, who holds an inscription time of 13.70 seconds.
The best in this specialty, which uses 99 centimeters high obstacles to this category, is exhibited by Americans Marcus Krah (13.25) and Amere Lattin (13.32), the latter is runner up of the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing 2014.
Cuba has four leaders in all the events: Ayamey Medina (women´s hammer / 68.98 meters), Davisleidis Velazco (women´s triple jump / 14.08 m) and the world cadet champions Cristian Napoles (men´s triple jump / 16.92 m) and Maikel Masso (men´s long jump / 8.28m).
In addition, Roxana Gomez, 52.26 seconds in women´s 400 meters, appears third in the rankings behind Jamaicans Junelle Bromfield (51.74) and Tiffany James (52.06).
The opening day will involve Cubans Santiago Ford and Rafael Noguera in the decathlon and Arletis Taureaux in the women´s 800 meters qualifing heats.
The competition will close on Sunday, only day with only one session.
Cuba totals 24 scepters, 29 second seats and 19 bronze medals, and ranks tenth in the standings by nations with 752.5 points povided by athletes included in the top eight of each event.