Omara and Yankiel are two gold medals for Cuba at the Paralympic Games

August 31, 2021

The sprinter Omara Durand ran faster than anyone to proclaim herself champion of the 400 meters flat in the T12 category (profound visual impairment) and thus give Cuba its second gold medal of these sixteenth Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 and the number 41 in its history at these summer events.

Guided on the track by the eyes of her inseparable Yuniol Kindelán, she stopped the clocks at 52.58 seconds to leave behind the experienced Ukrainian Oksana Boturchuk (55.33) and Venezuelan Alejandra Paola Pérez (67.06), who could do nothing against the drive of a legend who has not lost a race in an entire decade.

This medal is the sixth gold that this 29-year-old from Santiago has taken from the tracks in multiple games, making her the most decorated Cuban woman in history in these competitions by surpassing her compatriot Yunidis Castillo, absent at this summer event.

Half of them she has won in the oval and the rest in the 100 and 200 meters flat, disciplines in which she will also compete in this edition and where she holds the world records.

With this title, the Cuban delegation positioned itself in 32nd place in the overall medal count by country and now the aspirations of remaining among the top 20 nations are reborn when several more events that could bring titles are still to come.

Shattering all the forecasts of the experts, Robiel Yankiel del Sol took the gold medal in the long jump T46 category of these games, driving the spikes to 7.46 meters, a mark that no one has ever achieved in any of the other 15 paralympics.

With no record at all, barely 18 years old and with a modest personal mark of 6.77 meters, this young man arrived at the competition without drawing anyone's attention until he achieved this feat and gave Cuba its first gold medal of this event and the number 40 it achieves in the history of its participation in these multiple meetings.

Very stable was the Caribbean athlete throughout the event to leave no room for doubt, surpassing seven meters in four of his six attempts, to announce to the world that a new legend was being born in the land of the rising sun.

The silver medal of the event went to American Roderick Townsed, Paralympic champion of Rio de Janeiro 2016 with 7.36 m, and the bronze was won by Russian Nikita Kotukov with a jump of 7.34 m.