Colombia’s Caterine Ibarguen took the silver medal in the women’s triple jump at the Olympic Games here.
Ibarguen, who had won the bronze at the Daegu, South Korea, competition, competed in a magnificent final but was beaten by Kazakhstan’s Olga Rypakova, who had taken home the silver at Daegu. Olha Saladuha of Ukraine took the Olympic bronze.
Rypakova leaped 14.98 meters to Ibarguen’s 14.80 meters.
Ibarguen, who also competes in the high jump, had been the jumper who has shown the greatest consistency over the years in this event, often winding up on the award podium, and this evidently gave her the confidence she needed to deal with the different situations that cropped up in the final.
Ibarguen began her athletic career 12 years ago and it soon became evident that she had what it takes to be a champion, and she convinced her paternal grandmother, who raised her after her parents separated, to take her to Medellin at age 14 to train. And it was Cuban trainer Regla Sandrino who convinced her to devote her efforts to the various jumps. EFE
