Cuban jumper Luis Enrique Zayas triumphs in Slovakia with personal record

February 12, 2020

Personal record of 2.33 meters that went on to lead the world rankings for the season and gave him first place in the high jump at the Banská Bystrica meet in Slovakia, delighting Santiago native Luis Enrique Zayas and Cuban athletics in general.

The champion of the past Lima 2019 Pan American Games experienced his second indoor competition this Monday and couldn't have done it better, as he surpassed on a couple of occasions his previous best mark (2.30) and showed confidence in all his attempts.

That is the opinion of world record holder Javier Sotomayor, who accompanied him in the competition and in conversation with JIT predicted a good season for Juan Francisco Centelles' student.

Zayas started at 2.20 meters then went over 2.25 and declined 2.28 to "tackle" 2.31 with confidence, which at that moment was a personal record. Moments later he cleared the winning height of 2.33 which already secured him the top of the podium.

He then failed on all three attempts at 2.35 meters, but—according to Sotomayor—on the first one he almost made it.

"It was a great competition for him, he was very confident, he even started at 2.20 when most of the other competitors started at 2.10," Sotomayor exemplified to give a better idea of what happened on the Slovak evening.

"The first attempt at 2.35 was close to being good, I think he's going to have a great season," he emphasized about Zayas, who won the junior world gold in 2016 and just a few months ago was among the finalists in the Doha world championship.

Zayas made his debut in this winter season the previous Saturday in Hustopece, with a fifth place finish and 2.27 meters as his mark, but since then Sotomayor had indicated that his performance showed it was time to achieve more.

In the opinion of the greatest high jumper of all time, the young Santiago native only needed to gain confidence and adapt to the different conditions of indoor facilities.

Now accompanying him on the podium were Bahamian Jamal Wilson, also with 2.33 meters but with more misses, and in third place climbed Briton Tom Gale, with 2.31.