2024-07-11 00:14:09
Text: Cuba News 360 Editorial Team
Photo: RL Hevia
Cuban Olympic champion Yipsi Moreno unexpectedly reappeared in official competitions a decade after retiring from active sport. But just as surprising is that this event occurred last month and it was not until this week that it became known in the press and on social media.
The former national commissioner and former member of the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba participated on May 18 in the Albania Cup, a team tournament that ranks as the second most important athletic activity in the aforementioned country, according to the specialized website DeporCuba.
And if the return of the three-time world champion to the hammer throw circle was a milestone, even more so was her winning with a record of 63.90 metres, which is currently the second best of any Cuban this year and would have earned her silver medals in the most recent editions of the Barrientos Memorial and the Cuba Athletics Cup.
Only Mayabeque native Yaritza Martínez has better marks this season than the remembered Furia de Agramonte, who will turn 44 years old next November.
However, the surprises do not end here, since the Camagüeyan also participated in the discus throwing competition, which she also dominated with a throw of 29.50 meters to contribute to the crowning of her team as champion among women with 139 points.
The aforementioned report makes the caveat that, according to statistician Jorge González, Moreno has previously been credited with a throw of 31.36 in this event, dating back to the 1995 School Games.
Beyond the foray of the also Olympic runner-up of Athens 2004 into a specialty like the discus, her reappearance in the hammer does not mean that she will return to active sport, although media in that nation pointed out that the Albanian Athletics Federation hopes that she will soon join the national team, but with a role linked to sports teaching.
If successful, it would be a new turn in Yipsi’s multifaceted career, who, although she experienced a successful period as an athlete, later experienced bittersweet moments at the head of Cuban athletics and also as a member of the highest governing body of the island between 2018 and 2023.
Moreno, who retired after winning the Central Caribbean title in Veracruz 2014, has a personal best in the hammer throw of 76.62 metres, achieved in Zagreb on 9 September 2008, just one month after finishing second at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
However, in 2016, the doping of Belarusian Aksana Miankova came to light, which is why her gold medal was withdrawn in the Chinese capital and awarded to the Cuban, who was finally able to celebrate the glory under the five rings that had eluded her during her magnificent career.