Three attempts to pass over a certain height: that is the essence of any competition of vertical jumps, high jump or pole vault. Using this as a reference, we talked to Yarisley Silva, silver medalist in London Olympic Games, national record holder and among the best sportspersons in Cuba in 2012. She is getting ready for her debut in the winter season.
We are already in a new year, let’s talk goals…
The main goal this year is the World Championships in Moscow where I plan to win a medal. Regarding heights, I haven’t set for a limit. I was all yesteryear claiming I wanted to jump 4.80 but I don’t want to limit myself because I understood that you cannot set yourself limits of any kind.
In the training we are working on improving technical details in the grip and the starting race and them little by little move forward to better my results. That has always been my motivation, to work to improve myself.
So, far, which has been the event of your life?
There are actually two, I can’t forget London because they are the Olympic Games, and one silver medal at this level is a great prize. The other one was in the 2011 Guadalajara Pan American games. There I felt for the first time that the public support me and encourage me. I arrived in Mexico, as you know, to contend for the silver medal since I had to face Murer (Fabiana Murer) that was the new world champion, but I the end I won the gold and truly, it was awesome. This Pan-American event, from all points of view, was exceptional.
Do you want to share an anecdote?
I have an experience that I like and I enjoyed telling people about it, but at the moment, instead of laughing what I did was crying. In 2011, in my first European tour, my first competition was in the French city of Strauzburg (June 12) and I had to go alone. I went, I competed and I won (gold with 4.45 meters) so far, so good: the problem was the return. When I got to the airport they told me they couldn’t take the vaults because they didn’t fit in the plane. What a moment! I dint know what to do, I didn’t speak any French or English, and to add insult on injury, I didn’t even have a phone to call Navas (coach Alexander Navas) and ask him for directions. Those were awful minutes. A little later a woman that could speak Spanish arrived and was my translator. At the end I got in the plane and the poles arrived three or four days later in Spain.
Silva, from Cuba’s westernmost province Pinar del Rio, leads a group of three athletes that were announced to go to the European tour in 2013, along hurdlers (60 meters) Orlando Ortega and Yordan O´Farrill.
In the case of Silva, she is expected to participate in four meetings, though the route is not yet defined. Also, the scheduled events are Pardubice (Golden Pole February 5, Czech Republic), Donestk (Pole Vault Stars – 9, Ukraine), Bydgoszcz (Pedro´s Cup – día 12, Poland), Birmingham (British Athletics Indoor Grand Prix –16, England) and Stockholm (XL Galan – 21, Sweden) seem to be the most likely possibilities for Silva to attend.
