[1/5] Cuba's high jump king and international idol Javier Sotomayor reacts during an interview beside a sculpture of himself leaping over the bar at his Restaurant & Bar in Havana, Cuba, June 20, 2023. REUTERS/Alexandre MeneghiniHAVANA, July 25 (Reuters) - Records are made to broken, world high jump king and international idol Javier Sotomayor said, smiling behind dark glasses as the fierce Caribbean sun beat down on Havana's Pan-American Stadium. At 55 years old, however, the lanky, unassuming Cuban athlete is now celebrating the third decade that his record-breaking 2.45-metres leap over the outdoor high jump bar in Salamanca, Spain, in 1993, remains unmatched. Including his prior 2.43m indoor world record in Budapest five years earlier, Sotomayor counts 35 years as world record holder, though the weather-sensitive outdoor title carries more weight internationally. Sotomayor first hurled himself to the world's top high jump spot in 1988, before beating this with a 2.44m spring in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the following year.

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Persons: Javier Sotomayor, Alexandre Meneghini HAVANA, Sotomayor, Sweden's Patrik Sjoberg, Igor Paklin, Charles Austin, Ukraine's Bogdan Bondarenko, Jaxier, Jose Godoy, Nelson Acosta, Sarah Morland, Ken Ferris Organizations: Bar, REUTERS, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Havana, Cuba, Cuban, Salamanca, Spain, Budapest, San Juan , Puerto Rico, Brussels, New York