Pichardo to miss Mundias de Atletismo with injury

Pablo Pichardo will miss the World Championships in Athletics due to injury, the Portuguese Athletics Federation announced on Thursday.

“Olympic, world and European triple jump champion Pedro Pablo Pichardo has been forced to withdraw from his fight for the world title in Budapest at the World Championships in Athletics, which will be held from 19 to 27 August,” the statement said. .

“The athlete flew today with the national delegation, but during a trip that was vague for all teams due to flight delays, he again felt symptoms of lower back pain, an injury that did not allow him to compete at the European Championships this season. “Teams in the national club championships and in the championships of Portugal. Pedro Pichardo was examined and evaluated by the medical team that accompanies the national team in these world championships, and he was recommended not to participate in the competition,” the federation said.

This Friday, the 30-year-old was supposed to leave for Hungary to defend the world title won in 2022 in the United States.

With the confirmation of Pichardo’s absence, the Portuguese delegation for the 19th World Championships was reduced to 28 athletes, without a single Olympic medalist in Tokyo 2020 due to injury, as Patricia Mamona, also silver in the top three, was outside. , which is now the third-highest ever, one less than in Berlin 2009, where Nelson Evora won silver in the triple, and two less than 30 in Athens 1997, at the height of athletes like Fernanda Ribeiro, Manuela Machado and Carla Sacrament.

Among the Portuguese, only marchers Ines Henriques, world champion in the extinct 50 km in London 2017, and João Vieira, who won silver in the 50 km in Doha 2019 and bronze in Moscow 2013, have already won medals at the world championships.

The Portuguese-Cuban jumper was a highlight and unknown in the Portugal national team because his outdoor season was limited by his presence at the Doha Diamond League event, which he won with a great but irregular jump of 17.91 meters. [com vento favorável 2,1].

And this despite the fact that the winter was favorable for the athlete, who won the triple competition in the national clubs on the indoor track with a score of 17.12, in the “warm-up” for the European indoor title in Istanbul with a score of 17.60. , at its best mark of the year.

Since then, in addition to his presence in Qatar, where he jumped 17.65 and 16.04, he has missed the European Games, in Poland and the national championships due to lower back pain that kept him out of his fifth World Cup today. third for Portugal after winning the Oregon 2022 title and fourth in Doha 2019. Earlier, while still a Cuban, he won silver medals in Moscow 2013 and Beijing 2015.

Pichardo made his third jump of the year with a 17.60 in Istanbul, behind young Jamaican Jadon Hibbert, 18, who arrived in the Hungarian capital with a record of 17.87, six centimeters more than Burkina’s Hugh Fabrice Zango. Faso.

National representation in the trio, whose qualification is scheduled for 19:37 local time (18:37 Lisbon) on the first day of the competition, is entrusted to Thiago Luis Pereira, now coached by Ivan Pedroso, who has 16.51 meters as the best mark of the year .

The 19th World Championships in Athletics will be held from Saturday to August 27 in the capital of Hungary.