• Submitted by: lena campos
• Sports
• 08 / 20 / 2013

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The Cuban delegation in the 2013 World Championship in Athletics, which ended on Sunday in Moscow, was below the expectations, failing to fulfill the goal of improving its performance in Daegu 2011.

In the closing day in Luzhniki Olympic stadium, Cuban triple jumper Pedro Pablo Pichardo gave the largest joy to the island after winning the silver medal with a jump of 17.68 m (58.01 ft), below gold medal winner French Teddy Thango (18.04 m, 59.19 ft) and above bronze medal winner US Will Claye (17.52 m, 57.48 ft)

Pichardo's medal was the third one for Cuba in the world championships in Moscow, after the two bronze medals won by disc thrower Yarelys Barrios and pole vaulter Yarisley Silva.

Silva, Olympic runner-up in London 2012, won her first medal in world championships. She achieved bronze with a 4.82m (15.81 ft) jump in her third try, the same height overcame by the US jumper Jennifer Suhr in her second jump (silver), but not enough to defeat the triple world champion Yelena Isimbayeva (4.89 m, 16.04 ft).

Both Silva and Pichardo arrived in Moscow with the best world record of the year in their respective disciplines (4.90 m and 17. 79 m respectively).

Despite setting a national record in semifinals with 47.93 seconds, Omar Cisneros, in the 400 meters hurdles, arrived in fourth position in Moscow with a time of 48.12 seconds.

The Cuban sports officials were previously optimistic and hoped that at least six of the 24 Cuban athletes can stand on the podium to improve the island's performance two years ago, when it ended in the 18th position in the medal count with four medals (one silver and three bronze).

However, Cuba ended in the 23rd position in the medal count and 13th in the point count, which is the worst performance of the Cuban track and field delegation in the last five world championships, both in the number of medals and obtained points.

In its best medal count of world championships in athletics, Cuba was ranked the eighth position with 52 medals, from which 19 are gold, 22 silver and 11 bronze.

The Moscow championship reached a record participation of 1,970 competitors from 206 countries.

Source: GlobalTimes.cn