Cuban discus thrower Denia Caballero with great aspirations in 2020

March 19, 2020

The outstanding Cuban discus thrower Denia Caballero, world champion in Beijing 2015, assured in this capital that she has great aspirations in the current 2020, with her sights set on the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Since the year began I have been thinking about that summer date and my aspiration is none other than to win the gold medal, Caballero declared to ACN, with great confidence in her words.

I know that there I will have very strong rivals, but I will give my maximum effort in training to achieve my objective, specified the bronze medalist in the competition under the five rings of Rio de Janeiro 2016.

So far everything is going well according to what was planned, at this moment I am in a strength phase, so in the Copa Cuba I will compete at 50 percent of my athletic form, although I will go looking for a good result, she added.

After the tournament here in Havana—she said—I will begin special preparation and I plan to participate in some international competition starting in May, but everything will depend on whether they are held or not due to the new coronavirus pandemic, she explained.

So far this season, Caballero, champion at the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games, threw the discus to 63.71 meters (m) in the competition test held on February 8th at the Pan American Stadium.

Likewise, on the 28th of that same month she achieved a mark of 62.31 m in the Aurelio Janet Memorial, in the province of Santiago de Cuba.

Her closest competitive challenge will be in the aforementioned Copa Cuba athletics to be held from the 20th to the 22nd next, in this capital, where she will have as opponent her teammate Yaimé Pérez, winner of the title in the universal competition of Doha 2019.

In that competition last October, the two of them shone greatly with the gold and silver medals, respectively, in the discus throw final.

And it was an exciting duel with considerable rivalry, Pérez took the gold metal almost out of the "freezer" of that event with an excellent mark of 69.17 m in the fifth attempt, to beat Caballero (68.44 m), who finished second on the podium.