Ecuador ended 2006 with two major athletics medals: Jefferson Perez's silver for race walk at the World Cup and Hugo Chila's silver for the triple jump at the youth championships.

Perez arrived at the World Cup, held in La Coruna, Spain, with a bad muscle cramp and suffered a tear in the middle of the competition. Even so, he covered the 20 km track in one hour 19 minutes and eight seconds, ahead of everyone except Francisco Fernandez.

Chila, competing in Beijing, achieved 16.49 meters, beaten only by France's Benjamin Compaore, with 16.61.

The 19-year-old athlete is the first South American to win a triple jump medal at the youth world championships, and only the second athlete to win any medal at the event. Perez won gold in 1992 and bronze in 1990.