Ипси Морено: Кубинская молотобойца и олимпийская чемпионка

Cuban hammer thrower

Yipsi Moreno González (born November 19, 1980, in Camagüey) is a Cuban hammer thrower. She is a triple world champion and Olympic gold medalist, a former world junior record holder and current area record holder. In 2016, after the 2008 Olympic gold medallist Belarus athlete Aksana Miankova received a disqualification by IAAF, Moreno ostensibly became Olympic hammer throw champion for Cuba in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

At the age of 11, she was recruited by the Cerro Pelado Sports School in her hometown, where she started practicing shot put and discus throw. Hammer throw was not a regular women's event at the time, but following its introduction in Cuba in 1993, she eventually concentrated on this event and she earned a place on the national junior team in 1996.

In 1997, Moreno won the Pan American Junior Championships in Havana with a throw of 55.74 metres, improving the two year old championship record with ten metres. She beat the second place finisher Maureen Griffin by a 46 centimetre margin. This year she threw past the 60 metre mark for the first time, with 61.96 m. The next year, she finished fourth at the 1998 World Junior Championships, this time 29 centimetres behind Griffin. After the World Junior Championships, Moreno started working with a new coach Eladio Hernández, himself a former hammer thrower. The cooperation paid off almost immediately as Moreno established a new world junior record on 29 May 1999 with 66.34 metres at altitude in Mexico City. Later that year, she won the silver medal at the Pan American Games with 63.03 metres, only beaten by Dawn Ellerbe who threw 65.36. At the World Championships the same year her only valid throw measured 58.68 metres, giving her an eighteenth place in the final (there was no qualification round). At her next major competition, the 2000 Olympics, she improved to fourth place.

In 2001, she broke the 70 metre barrier for the first time, and improved her personal best to 70.65 metres as she won the World Championships in Edmonton. Three weeks later she won the silver medal at the 2001 Summer Universiade behind Manuela Montebrun of France, who had finished fifth in Edmonton. In 2002, she improved to 71.47 metres in Madrid in July. She was selected to represent the Americas at the 2002 World Cup held in the same city two months later, and finished second.

In July 2003, she improved further to 75.14 metres. At the Pan American Games she won the gold ahead of compatriot Yunaika Crawford, smashing Dawn Ellerbe's championship record with a 74.25 metres throw. Commenting on her victory, Moreno stated that she "was happy for Cuba and my family". The inaugural World Athletics Final in Szombathely, where she obtained another triumph, concluded the season. At the end of the year she was named Cuban Sportswoman of the Year for 2003. 2004 was an Olympic year and Moreno was considered the pre event favourite for the hammer throw contest. Not only was she in lead of the world ranking, her new personal best and South American record of 75.18 metres from the National Cuban Olympics in Havana in April was the world leading result. In the Olympic final, however, her chance of winning soon dwindled as Olga Kuzenkova took the lead and Moreno fouled her first throw. Moreno went on to foul on three of her five remaining efforts, managing 73.36 metres in the fourth round, while Kuzenkova had improved to 75.02 metres in the third round. On 17 June she improved the record again, with a 76.36 m throw from the second round in the Janusz Kusocinski Memorial, Warsaw.

At the 2008 Olympics Women's Hammer Throw final, Moreno again won a silver medal, this time behind Aksana Miankova of Belarus, who threw an Olympic Record distance of 76.34 meters in her second to last round. Moreno was in the silver medal position with one throw left, and in her final effort, she fell short of Miankova with a throw of 75.20 meters, although it was her best throw of the final. She was declared 2008 Olympic Champion in 2016, after Belarusian Aksana Miankova was disqualified for using prohibited substances.

Hammer throw: 76.62 m – Zagreb, 9 September 2008

1997Pan American Junior ChampionshipsHavana, Cuba1st55.74 m1998Ibero American ChampionshipsLisbon, Portugal2nd57.97 mWorld Junior ChampionshipsAnnecy, France4th59.85 m1999Pan American GamesWinnipeg, Canada2nd63.03 mWorld ChampionshipsSevilla, Spain18th (q)58.68 m2000Olympic GamesSydney, Australia4th68.33 m2001World ChampionshipsEdmonton, Canada 1st70.65 mUniversiadeBeijing, China2nd68.39 mGoodwill GamesBrisbane, Australia4th67.83 m2002World CupMadrid, Spain 2nd69.65 m2003Pan American GamesSanto Domingo, Dominican Republic1st74.25 mWorld ChampionshipsParis, France 1st73.33 mWorld Athletics FinalSzombathely, Hungary 1st73.42 m2004Ibero American ChampionshipsHuelva, Spain1st71.06 mOlympic GamesAthens, Greece 2nd73.36 m2005World ChampionshipsHelsinki, Finland 1st73.08 mWorld Athletics FinalSzombathely, Hungary 1st74.75 m2006Central American and Caribbean GamesCartagena, Colombia 1st70.22 mWorld Athletics FinalStuttgart, Germany 3rd71.85 mWorld CupAthens, Greece 3rd 73.99 m2007ALBA GamesCaracas, Venezuela1st70.44 mPan American GamesRio de Janeiro, Brazil1st75.20 mWorld ChampionshipsOsaka, Japan 2nd74.74 mWorld Athletics FinalStuttgart, Germany 1st73.76 m2008Olympic GamesBeijing, China 1st75.20 mWorld Athletics FinalStuttgart, Germany 1st74.09 m2010Ibero American ChampionshipsSan Fernando, Spain —NMContinental CupSplit, Croatia 3rd72.73 m2011World ChampionshipsDaegu, South Korea4th74.48 mPan American GamesGuadalajara, México1st75.62 m A2012Olympic GamesLondon, United Kingdom5th74.60 m2013World ChampionshipsMoscow, Russia5th74.16 m2014Pan American Sports FestivalMexico City, Mexico2nd69.65 m ACentral American and Caribbean GamesXalapa, Mexico1st71.35 m A