By NAN Sports Editor
News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Mon. June 11, 2018: A 19-year-old Caribbean teen has stunned the world of long jump and could become the sports new king after his incredible performance at the BAUHAUS-galan meet in Stockholm Sunday.
Cuban national Juan Miguel Echevarria jumped an astonishing 8.83m, a jump that was nearly out of the sand pit, and stunned the crowd gathered in the Olympic Stadium and those watching on TV. Echevarria seized command in the final round with the longest jump in the world for 23 years.
Sadly, the jump was not accepted as official record though because of wind conditions (+2.1m/s).
But that is not stopping Echevarria from celebrating. “Today I wanted over 8.50m but I didn’t think I could jump so far,” he said. “The pressure on me was good today and it was good competing against the top guys. I want to jump at this level for a long time, but it’s early season so I will take it all step by step.”
Echevarria represented his country at the 2017 World Championships narrowly missing the final. He later won a gold medal at the 2018 World Indoor Championships with a world leading mark of 8.46 metres.
His personal best before in the event was 8.53 metres outdoors (+0.5 m/s, Rome 2018) and 8.46 metres indoors (Birmingham 2018).
