体坛英语新闻：Large Cuban squad to compete in athletics worlds

HAVANA, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Eighteen Cuban track-and-field stars will compete in the Aug. 10 to 18 World Athletics Championships in Russia's capital Moscow, hoping to place the nation among the top 10 medal winning countries, state-run sports news website JIT said Sunday.

Cuba's national athletics commissioner, Jorge Luis Sanchez, said so far 18 top-ranked Cuban athletes, all A-listers in keeping with the rules of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), have been tapped to form part of the Cuban delegation, but the number could reach 22, JIT reported.

Cuba's "goal is to place among the top 10 in the medals table," said Sanchez, declining to predict how many medals the squad can win.

The squad features five Cubans who are among the world's leading athletes in their respective trials, including pole vaulter Yarisley Silva (4.90 meters) and triple jumper Pedro Pablo Pichardo (17.69 m), both the first in their field.

Also competing is Yarelis Barrios, ranked third in the discus throw with a distance of 67.36m, Guillermo Martinez, ranked fifth in the javelin throw with a mark of 85.59m, and triple jumper Ernesto Reve (fifth, with a mark of 17.46m).

Orlando Ortega, ranked third in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 13.08 seconds, could join the delegation if Cuban officials agree to lift his six-month suspension, imposed in June for "failing to attend a scheduled event" in Russia.

Since May, Cuban athletes have won 30 titles, 18 silver medals and 12 bronze, at 27 international tournaments.

At the last world competitions in 2011 in Daegu, Cuban athletes garnered one silver and three bronze medals, and a year later at the 2012 London Olympic Games, they captured a silver and a bronze.