Yoandri (or ''Yoandris'') Betanzos Francis (born February 15, 1982, in

Santiago de Cuba Santiago de Cuba is the second-largest city in Cuba and the capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province. It lies in the southeastern area of the island, some southeast of the Cuban capital of Havana. The municipality extends over , and contains ...

) is a

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

n athlete competing in the

triple jump The triple jump, sometimes referred to as the hop, step and jump or the hop, skip and jump, is a track and field event, similar to the long jump. As a group, the two events are referred to as the "horizontal jumps". The competitor runs down th ...

Early life and career

They say, he was almost born on the track: His mother, Cuban sprinter Amarailis Francis, suffered from a heavy abdominal pain during her daily practice, and was immediately transferred to a hospital in her hometown

. A couple of hours later, she gave birth to her son. Later, he moved to Ciego de Ávila, the hometown of his father, Cuban boxer Álvaro Betanzos, and started his sports career following in his father's footsteps as a boxer. After about a year, he changed to athletics, firstly competing as a high jumper. In 1993, he became Cuban national champion in his age group setting a new record of 1.86 m, beating the old mark set by Javier Sotomayor. As he was not tall enough, his coaches proposed to change to triple jump.

Personal bests

His personal best outdoor jump is 17.65 metres, achieved in April 2009 in Havana. As of 21 June 2013, this result places him sixth on the all-time Cuban performers list, behind Yoelbi Quesada, Lázaro Betancourt, Aliecer Urrutia,

Pedro Pichardo Pedro Pablo Pichardo Peralta (, ; born 30 June 1993) is a Cuban-born Portuguese triple jumper who holds the current Olympic, World, and European titles. He won the gold medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics with a Portuguese national record of . P ...

, and

Alexis Copello Alexis Copello (born August 12, 1985) is a Cuban triple jumper who since 2017 competes internationally for Azerbaijan. He has a (legal) personal best jump of . He is a World Championship medalist, having won the bronze at the 2009 World Champion ...

Achievements

References

External links