Cubans to participate in Diamond League stop in Lausanne

HAVANA, Cuba, Jul 5 (acn) Cuban long jumper Juan Miguel Echevarria and woman triple jumper Liadagmis Povea will compete today in the eighth stop of the IAAF Diamond League2019, based in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Echevarria, Birmingham 2018 World Indoor Championship monarch, will try to maintain his competitive stability in a series in which he already climbed to the top of the podium in the sixth leg of Rabat, Morocco.
In that contest of last June 16, he jumped 8.34 meters and in addition to the crown and the eight points for the Diamond race, he now appears third in the world ranking, which is led by American Jeff Henderson (8.38 m), Rio 2016 Olympic champion; while South African Luvo Manyonga (8.35) ranks second.
In his last competition, the Ostrava Golden Spikes Meeting, in the Czech Republic, the young Cuban athlete scored 8.32m and also won that event.
Echevarria´s toughest rivals in Lausanne will be Manyonga and his countryman Ruswahl Samaai, silver and bronze medalists, respectively, in Rabat.
The Caribbean nation will also be represented in this Diamond League stop by Povea, who will face ace figures such as Colombian Caterine Ibarguen and Venezuelan Yulimar Rojas, the latter owns the season best record with 15.06 meters.
Ibarguen (14.79 m) appears second in the universal list this year, followed by Jamaican Shanieka Ricketts (14.76) and Povea (14.69), according to IAAF official website.