Cuban athletics will have a historic presence at the 2026 Diamond League Final, which will take place on September 4 and 5 at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels, as part of the Allianz Memorial Van Damme.
In total, ten athletes born in Cuba have qualified for the most important event of the regular season on the world circuit, as highlighted on his social media by sports journalist Raúl Rodríguez.
The delegation of Cuban origin is divided into three groups: five compete under the flag of the Cuban Athletics Federation, three do so as independent athletes, and two represent the colors of Portugal and Italy.
For Cuba, Leyanis Pérez and Liadagmis Povea will compete in the women's triple jump, Lázaro Martínez in the men's triple jump, Jorge Hodelín in the long jump, and Roxana Gómez in the 400 meters.
Pérez arrives as one of the standout athletes of the competition after a dominant season: she is a three-time world champion in the triple jump, with titles at the 2025 Outdoor World Championships in Tokyo (14.94 m), the 2025 Indoor World Championships in Nanjing (14.93 m), and the 2026 Indoor World Championships in Toruń (14.95 m). Additionally, she is tied for first place in the circuit in her discipline with 28 points alongside Senegalese athlete Saly Sarr.
Hodelín, for his part, secured his spot in the final after finishing fourth in Zurich with a distance of 8.32 meters, just one centimeter below the podium.
The three independent athletes who will also be in Brussels are Davisleydi Velazco (triple jump), Reynier Mena (200 meters), and Kendry Menéndez (110 meters hurdles). Velazco is in third place in the women's triple jump ranking of the Diamond League with 27 points, while Menéndez is ranked seventh in the 110 meters hurdles.
The group is completed by two athletes competing under different flags: Pedro Pablo Pichardo, an Olympic champion representing Portugal, and Andy Díaz, who defends the colors of Italy. Díaz arrives as the reigning indoor world champion and European champion of Birmingham 2026, where he jumped 18.15 meters, the fourth-best mark in history for the event.
The triple jump once again showcases the island's athletics: six of the ten qualified athletes compete in this event—Pérez, Povea, Velazco, Martínez, Pichardo, and Díaz—confirming the relevance of a school that continues to set the standard in global jumping elite.
The final in Brussels, which will celebrate the 50th edition of the Memorial Van Damme in 2026, will distribute 2.24 million dollars in prizes, the highest purse in the 17-year history of the circuit.
Each discipline will award between $60,000 and $100,000, with individual winners able to pocket up to $60,000. In addition to the prize money, the champion of each event will receive the Diamond Trophy and direct access to the Ultimate World Championships of World Athletics.
"The presence of ten athletes born in Cuba, although they are currently following different sporting paths, underscores the significance of the Cuban athletics school in the international elite, particularly in the jumping events."
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