The man calls to defeat the record of the world of length

The migratory current of the Cuban athletics towards Europe, preferably Spain and Portugal, usually follows a fixed pattern. Leaving the island to search for a better return of the talent economy is the starting point; Then, the following will not change. Problems to leave Cuba, the traumatic moment of the Dropout, and, that in Europe, the long wait to achieve a new passport and permission to compete around the world. In Juan Miguel Echevarría, the ‘Black Panther’, the situation was so deeply called by man to end more than three decades of Mike Powell World Record at length (8.95 meters, 1991) spent three and a half years, almost an entire Olympic cycle, without competing. He returned to the pit this winter, with 26 years, with a long time lost. He is jumping in Europe but, contrary to other previous cases, he continues to do so for his country of origin, Cuba, who forgives the prodigal son.

Echevarría is the bomb, though now he is just a jumper in the process of recovering the glory he has. In 2019, with 21 years, ‘Black Panther’ jumped 8.68 legal meters and accumulated two wonders that were broken by wind: one 8.83 with 2.1 meters per second in favor, and a 8.92 with 3.3 m/s. This is when Powell blesses him as the heir who will end his note.

But Pandemya, in 2020, removed her ‘prime’ and the return, in the 2021 Tokyo Games, with problems with the femoral biceps of one leg, they managed to jump 8.41 and hang the money with the same mark as champion, the Greek TentToglou.

After that, three and a half years ago, melted in black. The nothing more. A war with the managers of the Cuban Athletics Federation took him to great competitions and he himself was released for personal reasons. Under the story, the common: on the one hand, suspicions of a desert plan; On the other hand, the desire to appreciate and aspire to a better life train. He even moved the rumors that Echevarría had fully renewed athletics and gained life as an orchestra singing. The time continues to pass for the greatest talent of the jump length.

In 2023 he left Cuba through Portugal, and last year it was announced that he had arrived in Guadalajara to join the selected group of Iván Pedroso’s trains. But he did this with the Cuba passport in his hand. Of the dropout, nothing. “I went for Cuba,” he announced in April 2024. “As we respected his decision to prove new roads, we applauded his willingness to return to our choice,” replied the Cuban Federation. In Pombal (Portugal), by the end of this January, Echevarría placed a dorsal finally, for a very careful return, 7.48 meters. Echevarría aims to recover the lost time and hunt the minimum for the World Cup’s short track in Nanjing (8.26 m). And, most of all, to be one in September, when the ‘Grande’ World Cup will perform in Tokyo.