Little known on the international stage, Cuban javelin thrower Yiselena Ballar caused a stir this Wednesday when she left the Cuban delegation to the World Athletics Championships during a stopover in Miami from Havana.
In this way, the 19-year-old Cuban can be considered the latest loss for the Championships which begin on Friday July 15 in Eugene, Oregon.
According to reports in several Cuban alternative digital media sites, Ballar disappeared during the stop over of the national team at the Miami international airport.
She was summoned by the Cuban Athletics Federation at the last minute.
Representatives of the Cuban delegation confirmed the escape. In a note released on the official site of the National Sports Institute (Inder) they described the desertion as a “reprehensible attitude.”
No statements have been made by the athlete, nor is the place where she is known
The vice president of the National Sports Institute, Raúl Fornés, and the president of the Cuban Federation, the two-time Olympic champion Alberto Juantorena, traveled at the head of this expedition, which is now reduced to 14 competitors. Juantorena is also a member of the World Athletics Council.
Ballar was listed at number 34 in the javelin world ranking. In May 2021 she had thrown 60.84 meters during a test in Havana. Last June she threw for 60.07 in a tournament in Portugal.
Ballar was a bronze medalist at the Under-20 World Championships in Nairobi, Kenya. At the Junior Pan American Games in Cali, Colombia, last November he won the silver medal.
At the last moment, the Olympic heptathlete and Pan American Games champion, Yorgelis Rodríguez, was discharged due to discomfort in his knees.
Cuba’s main hopes of medals in Eugene fall on discus thrower Yaimé Pérez, world champion in Doha 2019, Lázaro Martínez, triple jump indoor world champion in Belgrade last March, and Maykel Massó (long jump) bronze medalist at Tokyo 2020.
Lázaro Martínez returns to Eugene’s Hayward Field eight years after winning the U-20 World Cup gold medal there, so the setting can boost his inspiration.
The Cuban delegation is resentful in a general sense due to the absence of outstanding athletes who, although they had the required marks for the World Athletics Championship will not be at the Oregon event for having deserted, for disassociating themselves from the National Federation for “personal reasons” or for having announced unexpected withdrawals.
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