The Cuban Yarisleidis Cirilo narrowly missed the podium this Sunday at the 2026 Poznan World Sprint Canoeing Championship, held in Poland, where she finished fourth in the final of the C1 at 200 meters with a time of 45.67 seconds.
The Guantanamera finished a highly competitive final where the podium slipped away by just 63 hundredths of a second from the bronze medal, according to the official site JIT.
The gold medal went to the Ukrainian Liudmyla Luzan, who crossed the finish line in 44.40 seconds. The Canadian Sophia Jensen took home the silver with a time of 44.90 seconds, and the American Nevin Harrison —defending champion— completed the podium with a time of 45.04 seconds.
Despite not reaching the podium, Cirilo acknowledged the value of her performance in a demanding year. "Not satisfied, but happy, because this has been a year full of challenges. Let's keep working and improving in all aspects," she wrote on her Facebook profile.
The canoeist also looked ahead with optimism: "Next year will be much better. I'm grateful, as always, to everyone who was part of this result, to those who supported me, to those who contributed in any way, to my family, especially to the Cuban Olympic Committee."
Cirilo's path to the final was solid. On Thursday, he won his elimination series, and on Saturday, he advanced to the final by finishing second in his semifinal heat with a time of 45.72 seconds, just five hundredths above his personal best in the event.
The fourth place in Poznan is part of a top-level record. The Cuban athlete won the Olympic bronze in Paris 2024 in this very same event, becoming the first Cuban woman to reach the Olympic podium in sprint kayaking.
Before that, at the 2023 World Championship in Duisburg, she was crowned world champion in the C1-200 meters. And in 2025, she returned to the top of the podium at the Junior and Under-23 World Championship held in Montemor-o-Velho, Portugal.
So far in 2026, Cirilo has earned silver at the World Cup in Szeged, Hungary in May, and gold in the C-2 500 meters alongside Yinnolis Franchesca López at the Pan American Canoeing Championship in Montreal in July.
That Pan American event was marked by an unprecedented crisis for Cuban canoeing: nine of the 12 members of the delegation did not return to Cuba after the competition, making Cirilo practically the only elite representative who remains in the country's women's canoeing.
With her performance in Poznan, the Guantanamera confirms that she continues to be a stable figure among the world's best specialists in the C1-200 category, in which she has accumulated a world title, an Olympic bronze, and now a fourth-place finish at the World Championships that, although without a medal, keeps her at the pinnacle of international sport.
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