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Athletics: Cuban so hot on heels of Hansen

European Trials: Triple jumper brings out best in Briton and then reveals she wants to compete for adopted land

Simon Turnbull
Sunday 14 July 2002 00:00 BST
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A 3am alarm call was not the only rude awakening Ashia Hansen received yesterday.

Having caught her early- morning flight from Rome, where she finished third in the Golden Gala meeting on Friday, the Commonwealth triple jump champion was confronted by a new domestic rival when she made it to the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham for the Norwich Union European Trials and AAA Championships.

The sight of Yamile Aldama warming up in front of the main stand might have caught Hansen by surprise, but the Cuban native brought out something close to the best in the formerly undisputed British No 1.

For now Aldama remains a Cuban athlete. Having settled at Limehouse in East London and married a Scotsman, though, she is seeking British citizenship. That is good news for British athletics. The 29-year-old has the pedigree of a world championship silver medallist: she was a runner-up in Seville three years ago. It promises to be good news for Hansen, too, judging by the stirring manner in which she responded to Aldama's challenge yesterday.

Hansen had managed a best jump of 14.32m in the international arena of the Stadio Olimpico the previous night. In Birmingham she broke her six-year-old championship record with 14.29m in the third round, then watched Aldama snatch it with a fourth-round effort of 14.40. Hansen's response was 14.50 in the fifth and penultimate round. It was the second-best performance of the summer by the woman who stands third in the world rankings.

"It made a big, big difference having Yamile here," Hansen said. "It made it a tough competition but it was good having to be pushed like that." Upon being informed that Aldama intends to switch national allegiance, she added: "It's good for Britain. I look forward to it."

Aldama had been listed as representing Cuba when she beat Hansen in the Norwich Union Classic at Sheffield a fortnight ago. Her reply yesterday when asked whether she hoped to represent Britain required no translation: "Si."

Speaking through an interpreter she added that she had been a resident Londoner for eight months now. "I met my husband in Cuba, got married, and came here," she said. "My husband, Andrew Dodds, is from Glasgow. He's a television producer. He was on holiday in Cuba when I met him. We have a son, Almile. He's 10 months old."

The question now is how long the pregnant pause will be before Aldama is eligible to compete for Britain. "We're speaking to the Home Office with regards to Yamile," David Moorcroft, the chief executive of UK Athletics, said. "The normal period for obtaining citizenship is two to three years and we're trying to find out if the process can be speeded up." Moorcroft and his fellow officials on the domestic governing body are also trying to hasten the clearance Aldama requires within the sport before completing her international transfer.

"We're talking to the Cuban federation," Max Jones, the performance director of UK Athletics, said. "If they say 'No' it'll be late 2003 that she'll become available."

That is the likely scenario. The Federacion Cubana de Atletismo are reluctantto sanction further defections following the loss of several leading athletes, among them Niurka Montalvo, who won the world long jump title for Spain in 1999 but was blocked by the Cuban Olympic Association from jumping for her new country at the Sydney Olympics a year later.

The International Association of Athletics Federations' rules stipulate that athletes must observe a three-year gap between competing for different countries. Aldama's last appearance for Cuba was in Sydney in September 2000. "It would be great for Britain if we could get Yamile in the team," Jones added. "It would be great for Ashia too."

Hansen certainly hopped, stepped and jumped like a woman inspired yesterday – pushed by a rival representing her old club, Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers, and who is guided by her old coach, Frank Attoh. The Cuban East Ender had landed.

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