A leg injury sustained on Friday in Brussels will keep Cuban jumper Jorge Hodelín out of the World Athletics Ultimate Championship, the most demanding event of the fall athletics calendar, scheduled for next weekend in Budapest, Hungary.
The incident occurred during the first attempt of the Diamond League final in the Belgian capital, the last stop of the circuit, according to reported the official newspaper JIT. In that jump, Hodelín barely reached 6.81 meters —well below his usual level— and had to withdraw from the competition immediately.
His coach, Miguel Vázquez, was clear when confirming the decision to the digital newspaper: "We have already decided that he will not participate in the Ultimate World Championship next weekend."
The 19-year-old, originally from Cabaiguán, Sancti Spíritus, arrived in Brussels as one of the world's great talents in the specialty after an extraordinary 2026 season.
The highlight of that journey was the U-20 world record set on June 13 in Pierre-Bénite, France, with a jump of 8.46 meters that surpassed the previous mark of Italian Mattia Furlani (8.38 meters), as confirmed by World Athletics.
Throughout the Diamond League, he achieved high-level performances: he finished third in Rome with a jump of 8.18 meters, won the International Meeting of Papaflessia in Greece with 8.22 meters, and recorded 8.38 meters in Monaco, among other notable appearances.
It was precisely his fourth place in Zurich —with 8.32 meters on August 28— that secured both his qualification for the grand final in Brussels and a spot in the Ultimate Mundial, the inaugural tournament that brings together the top athletes from the international rankings.
Hodelín had also made his debut at the World Indoor Championships with a fourth place finish and a jump of 8.26 meters, confirming his status as a promising athlete in Cuban track and field, particularly in the long jump, a discipline with a long-standing tradition in Cuba thanks to figures like Iván Pedroso and Juan Miguel Echevarría.
In Brussels, with the Cuban unable to compete, the victory went to the Jamaican Tajay Gayle with a distance of 8.46 meters in his final attempt, followed by the two-time world and Olympic champion Greek Miltiadis Tentoglou (8.40 meters) and the Swiss Simon Ehammer (8.23 meters).
Vázquez made the decision to prioritize the athlete's well-being over the sporting outcome, in line with what JIT described as "one of the sacred principles of Cuban sport: that nothing is more important than the athlete's health."
The Ultimate World Championship will take place from September 11 to 13 in Budapest, and the priority for the Cuban team will now be the recovery of its young long jump star before the upcoming commitments of the season.
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