Yulimar Rojas to make comeback with long jump in Salamanca

PARIS: Triple-jump world record holder Yulimar Rojas will return from the injury that cost her an 2024 Olympic medal shot, when she enters the long jump in Salamanca on Sunday.

The 29-year-old Venezuelan ruptured an Achilles tendon last April. That prevented her defending her Tokyo triple-jump gold at the Paris Games, where she also planned to compete in the long jump.

“With great joy, after weeks of preparations and caution, we can tell you the greatest Ibero-American athlete in history, Yulimar Rojas returns in Salamanca,” said organisers on social media, adding that the long-jump run-up was “tailor-made for Yulimar´s return”.

They said Rojas would be trying “to achieve the qualifying standard for the imminent World Indoor Championships” in Nanjing, China, on March 21-23.

Last May, after it became clear that she would miss the Olympics, Rojas said Nanjing and the outdoor World Championships in Tokyo in September had become her targets.

“The two World Championships coming up next year are my challenge, and I´ve always said that I´m a woman for challenges,” she said.

The Venezuelan has seven world titles, two less than the nine long-jump world titles of her Cuban coach Ivan Pedroso.

Rojas last appeared in competition in the Diamond League finals in September 2023 in Eugene in the United States.

She last competed in the long jump in the Monaco Diamond League meeting in July of the same year.