LEADING AN UNOFFICIAL Cuban medal sweep, Jordan Alejandro Díaz took gold with his opening round effort. That backed up his stunning 59-7¾ (18.18) world-leading mark from June’s European Championships, when he competed in a Spanish jersey for the first time.
Behind him were two other Cuban-born jumpers. Defending Olympic champion Pedro Pichardo, who has represented Portugal since 2019, took the silver and Andy Díaz Hernández, who was only cleared to compete for Italy on August 1, earned bronze.
Despite a runway that was wet from earlier rain, the competition got off to a hot start. Jumping third, Pichardo made an immediate statement, landing at 58-4½ (17.79). That didn’t top the leaderboard for long, as the 23-year-old Jordan Alejandro Díaz opened his card with a 58-7¼ (17.86), a mark that would ultimately hold up for the gold.
Díaz Hernández kept things interesting with his 57-10¼ (17.63) opener, while reigning world champion Hugues Fabrice Zango of Burkina Faso sat 4th with his 57-2¼ (17.43).
The podium was already set, but In the second round, Pichardo improved to 58-6½ (17.84) to solidify his hold on 2nd, while Jamaica’s Jaydon Hibbert moved ahead of Zango with a 57-9½ (17.61).
Jordan Alejandro Díaz backed up his lead with the day’s second longest effort, 58-6¾ (17.85) in the third round, while Díaz Hernández effected a slight improvement on his final jump, 57-10½ (17.64).
“The main objective of this competition, talking to my coach, was during the first three jumps to try to get the medal and that’s how it turned out,” said the winner — the ’18 World U18 and Youth Olympic champion, whose last global meet was the 2019 Worlds, in which he placed 8th for Cuba.
Pichardo, who followed his Tokyo victory with ’22 World Championships gold, was frustrated by his narrow defeat.
“Sadly, it didn’t turn out as I hoped,” he lamented, “but this is how competitions are, and in this competition you cannot make any mistakes. I made a lot of them and I paid for them. I lost the gold medal.”
Hibbert grabbed his hamstring during an aborted fifth-round effort and passed on his final attempt, thus remained in 4th. Zango improved to 57-5 (17.50), but that was only good for 5th, and just his second loss of the year.
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