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Up until last month, Lazaro Martinez had never competed indoors. But in the space of the past five weeks, the Cuban triple jumper won the World Indoor Tour and has now earned gold at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22.
Although he had the leading mark of all the entrants, Martinez wasn’t considered the pre-event favourite as he was up against the likes of Olympic champion Pedro Pichardo and defending world indoor champion Will Claye, both proven championship performers.
Indeed, Pichardo and Claye both raised their game and produced their longest jumps of the year, but Martinez proved to be too strong on the day. His opening-round leap of 17.64m held up as the best mark of the competition, despite Pichardo’s best efforts to dethrone the 24-year-old Cuban.
Just minutes after Martinez’s first-round effort, Pichardo opened with 17.42m, while Claye went out to 17.05m to move into third place. Pichardo then improved slightly to 17.46m in round two, consolidating his second-place position.
In round three, Martinez jumped 17.32m – still beyond his pre-competition outright PB. USA’s Donald Scott, meanwhile, moved into a medal position with a season’s best of 17.21m. Martinez produced another big leap in round four, breaking the sand at 17.62m. Claye tried his best to get back among the medals and improved to 17.19m in round five, but it wasn’t enough to catch his teammate Scott, who earned his first major championships medal.
SOURCE: WORLD ATHLETICS
