Yargelis Savigne of Cuba wins gold in the women's Triple Jump (Getty Images)

Osaka, Japan - It now seems obligatory to be a ‘combination’ jumper, i.e. doing the long and triple, and swapping between the two. It works for some people, notably Tatyana Lebedeva, who won Olympic and, two nights ago, World gold in the Long Jump, while the triple was originally thought to be her better event. For others, like Nelson Evorá of Portugal, it works when you do one only, as he demonstrated so spectacularly in winning the Triple Jump earlier this week.

Yargelis Savigne has trod the same runway as Evorá recently, and it paid off when she too won the Triple Jump on Day Seven, with an impressive opener of 15.28m. No one came close – not even Lebedeva, who was second with a 15.07m leap – and Savigne had won Cuba’s first, and probably, only gold of the championships.

“About two and half years ago, my coach (Milán Matos) said I should try the Triple Jump,” she said afterwards. “He told me he thought I could do better.” And so it proved, since she straightaway that first full season, won silver in Helsinki 2005. Now, she has gone one better, and taken gold. In the interim, she finished fifth in the World Indoors last year, and won the Pan-American Games earlier this year.

Still just 23

Turning 23 in two months time, she comes from the east of Cuba, a little town named Niceto Pérez, about 10 kilometres from Guantánamo. Asked about the name Savigne, she said, “Yes, it’s French. My father’s grandfather originally came from France, but I don’t know how long ago that was.” With no family history in sport, she initially played basketball at school, but started sprinting at the age of 11, and was taught the rudiments of long and triple jumping by her secondary schoolteacher, Eduardo Grant. A win in the long jump, reaching 6.24m at the national junior championships in Santiago de Cuba got her selected for the national junior team in 2001, and she moved to Havana.

After some success in regional competition, principally a bronze in the Pan-Ams in 2003, it was in the Cuban capital in 2005 that she really made an impact on the world lists, jumping 6.77m. That’s when she joined the Cuban contingent that tours Europe each year, and now she is a regular on the twice-yearly trips to the Cuban base in Spain. “We go for one and a half to two months in winter, and a month in summer, close to three months in all,” she said at her press conference.

Things just got better and better in 2005. She won both jumps at the CAC championships in Nassau, and by the time she got to Helsinki, she improved her triple best four times in the final, finishing with a national record of 14.82m for silver behind Trecia Smith of Jamaica. Three days later, she was just outside the meals in the long jump, fourth with 6.69m.

15m barrier in 2007

She improved her national record to 14.91m last year, and finally cleared the 15m barrier in Spain at the start of summer, after she took Pan-Am gold in Rio de Janeiro. She is now on the verge of the World record, following the massive leap that won gold in a new national record.

“I knew I needed to jump regularly over 15m this season, and probably close to 15.30 to win today,” she said. “Especially with Lebedeva in the competition. I always thought I could get a medal, but I wasn’t sure which one. Winning the gold means a lot to me, to my country, to my family and to the people around me.”