Pedro Pablo Pichardo and Jordan Díaz lead the Olympic triple jump rankings.

Four Cubans advanced this Wednesday to the grand final of the men's triple jump at the Paris 2024 Olympic athletics event, although the most outstanding performances were by the favorites Pedro Pablo Pichardo and Jordan Díaz, representing Portugal and Spain, respectively.

Pichardo, the reigning Olympic champion, and Díaz, the European champion from a few weeks ago, only needed one attempt to meet the mark required by the organizers (17.10), with distances of 17.44 meters and 17.24, in that order.

Lázaro Martínez and Andy Díaz, the latter competing under the flag of Italy, both jumped 16.79 but did not achieve the required mark; however, luck was on their side and they qualified in 11th and 12th places for the medal competition.

The other two representatives from the largest of the Antilles said goodbye to the competition: Cristian Nápoles (16.67) and Andy Echevarría (16.70), who had very modest performances.

In this way, the stage is set for one of the most anticipated events in the king of sports, as Pedro Pablo Pichardo and Jordan Díaz already sparked excitement during the European Championship held in June.

The young Díaz, only 23 years old, reached 18.18 meters that time to take the gold medal, with Spanish and continental records, as well as the third best record of all time, falling just 11 centimeters short of the world record held by the British Jonathan Edwards.

However, the competition was extremely fierce, as the Portuguese scored 18.04 to take the silver medal, but no one expected his stance on the validity of the winning result.

In a lengthy Instagram post, Pichardo publicly expressed his doubt about Díaz's jump, and asked: "Why did the electronic measuring device turn off at that moment? How do we know it was really 18.18 meters?"

The Olympic and universal monarch expressed that he "would like European Athletics, World Athletics, and the judges in charge to provide a quick response and clarification about what happened in the pit at the moment when the athlete from Spain made that great mark."

And he continued: “In a competition of that level, it is not normal to make a great record with the electronic rule turned off.”

Similarly, he reported that his rival left "celebrating without even realizing where he had landed since the measuring tape was already turned off, but it seems he knew he had surpassed me even before the measurement and without having the electronic tape turned on."

Pichardo's actions generated greater controversy among the athletes developed in the Cuban jumping school. All of this fuels the rivalry in the men's triple jump at Paris 2024.