Andy Diaz Hernandez became an Olympic medalist in Paris last year, snatching 17.64m to win the triple jump bronze behind Spain’s Jordan Alejandro Diaz Fortune and Portugal’s Pedro Piccardo.
His upward trajectory continued his post-Paris as he jumped on and skipped, jumping to 17.71m to win gold for the European indoor championships at Apeldoorn earlier this month.
That performance by Diaz Hernandez set the benchmarks of other regions around the world at Nanjing 25, the Indoor Championships of World Athletics.
In 2023, Diaz Hernandez jumped further in Florence at 17.75m.
He is intended to show a similar shape in Nanjing, but wants to make his neck suffocate is Germany’s Max Hess, a 17.43m athlete this season.
His breakthrough year continued into the senior ranks in 2016, when he won silver indoors in Portland in 2016, and continued into the summer summer with European gold.
His consistency returned to its best last year when he was competing in the Olympics, indoors and European finals, finishing in each top 10 after scoring the silver behind Diaz Hernandez indoors earlier this month.
The lineup of 16 experienced athletes includes defending champion Hugues Fabrice Zango. In the history of indoor sports, there weren’t as many people as he was 18.07m. Burkina Faso athletes are also world champions outside as well as Olympic medalists.
One big warning is that he is far inferior to some of his bigger distances so far this season, with the best of 16.55m, and he took 13th place of Nanjing’s 16 participants.
USA’s Will Claye was shy of that mark in 2025, but he has enjoyed a great opportunity, having eight global medals in triple jumps to his name.
Cuba’s Lazaro Martinez won the world’s indoor title in 2022, securing the world’s outdoors in Budapest.
Other potential protagonists in Nanjing are Italy’s Andrea Daraval, an athlete of 17.36 million this season, and China’s Tokyo Olympic silver medalist Zhu Yaming, who is hoping to jump 17.31m this year and impress the soil of the home.
Matt Maisie for World Athletics
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