Juan Miguel Echevarría won Diamond with record

September 2, 2019

A single jump was enough for Cuban Juan Miguel Echevarría to win the first Diamond of his career and do it with 8.65 meters, converted into the best mark of the year and a record for the Zurich athletics meet and the entire circuit.

That's how good the performance was with which the Pan American champion in the long jump prevailed this Thursday in the final of the renowned series, to maintain a season of encouraging results that still lacks the World Championship in Doha, in less than a month.

A few hours ago his coach Daniel Osorio, when speaking with JIT and despite his reluctance to make predictions, dared to confess that they would go for the top of the season, whether or not it served to win.

The promise was fulfilled, since Juan Miguel "shut down" the competition with that start and did not need any other valid attempt to leave in silver and bronze the South African Ruswahl Samaai and the Jamaican Tajay Gayle, both with 8.20 meters.

The mark achieved by the Cuban was only three centimeters short of the best of his life (8.68 meters) and erased from the list of Zurich record holders his compatriot, the great Iván Pedroso, winner there with 8.60 meters in 1995.

Previously, Juan Miguel had taken first place in the stops in Rabat and Lausanne and was number two in Stockholm, so he accumulated 23 points for the circuit standings.

At 21 years and 18 days old, the Camagüeyan is undoubtedly the main star of current Cuban athletics, and with each performance confirms the criteria that his maximum is still quite far away, which he will reach depending on how capable he is of pursuing it with his own work and dedication.