21 year-old Pedro Pablo Pichardo jumped 18.08m in yesterday’s Copa Cuba-Memorial Barrientos competition in Havana. The distance is a new world-lead as well as another new Cuban national record, the third of his season so far.
Pichardo opened his season with 17.94m on the 8th of May in Havana. He first jumped over 18m at the Doha Diamond League on 15 May. After beating reigning Olympic Champion Christian Taylor at the Diamond League, the young athlete has now improved the Cuban national record at an impressive three consecutive meets this year.
The 2012 World Junior Champion now lies third on the all-time list, behind USA’s Kenny Harrison and the world record holder, Jonathan Edwards. He told the local reporters “I did not expect this result because since my return [from Doha] I have been working on technical improvements, focusing on my run up and take off, but I still felt great.”
The athlete said his target for the meet was to break the meeting record. “I was only looking to jump better than 17.50m, with the target of breaking the meeting record of 17.78m, which had been held by Lazaro Betancourt [since 1986], but I did not expect to exceed 18 metres.”
The 2013 World Championship silver medallist jumped his new national record in the third round, with other jumps of 17.94m, 17.93m and 17.79m.
The athlete is set to be competing at both the Rome and New York Diamond Leagues next month.
