The athlete of Cuban descent Andy Díaz Hernández, competing under the Italian flag, won gold at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham with a jump of 18.15 meters which makes him the fourth best triple jumper of all time.
The mark, achieved on its second attempt during Saturday's final, shattered the national record of Italy and established itself as the best performance in the world for the 2026 season.
In the history of the event, only three athletes have jumped further: British athlete Jonathan Edwards with 18.29 meters in 1995, American Christian Taylor with 18.21 meters in 2015, and Cuban-Spanish Jordan Díaz with 18.18 meters in 2024.
The final was, once again, a battle between Cubans competing under different flags. The Portuguese Pedro Pablo Pichardo, Olympic champion in Tokyo 2021 and current outdoor world champion, had to settle for silver after recording 17.76 meters. The bronze went to the Italian Andrea Dallavalle with 17.37 meters.
For 30-year-old Andy Díaz, the outdoor European title represents his first major award in outdoor competition, a milestone that was missing after a brilliant career in indoor track.
In the past two years, the Havana athlete was crowned indoor world champion twice —in Nanjing 2025 and in Toruń 2026— and also won gold at the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn in 2025, becoming the second athlete in history to win consecutive triple jump titles at indoor World Championships.
His international debut wearing the azzurra jersey came at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, where he won bronze with a throw of 17.64 meters in a final that went down in history: the three medalists—Jordan Díaz from Spain, Pichardo from Portugal, and Andy Díaz from Italy—were all born in Cuba.
Díaz's personal journey has a clear turning point: in July 2021, he left the Cuban delegation during a training camp in Madrid and sought refuge in Italy, where former Olympic bronze medalist Fabrizio Donato welcomed him in Livorno and became his coach. He obtained Italian citizenship in February 2023 and since then has been continuously accumulating titles.
Pichardo, for his part, has now secured two consecutive European championships as a runner-up. In Rome 2024, it was Jordan Díaz who took the gold from him; in Birmingham 2026, he had to concede to Andy Díaz. The outgoing European champion, Jordan Díaz, was unable to defend his title in Birmingham, significantly hampered by injuries that have kept him practically out of competition for the past two seasons.
The Cuban triple jump school continues to dominate the global scene, although its top athletes are currently competing under European flags. With a jump of 18.15 meters in Birmingham, Andy Díaz has made it clear that he aims to approach Edwards' world record, which has stood for over thirty years.
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