She met future husband, Giuseppe Piccotti, while he was holidaying in the Caribbean. When he fell ill, she was quick to supply him with medicine, and it all went from there. After moving to Italy she wanted to take up jumping again but even though she was jumping personal bests she felt a little closed off from her colleagues, and accepted with good spirits that she would have to become an Italian. She naturalised in July 2001 and competed for Italy at the 2001 World Championships in Edmonton.
Martinez, World bronze medallist in Paris 2003 and Olympic seventh placer, made her seasonal debut in the Triple Jump after a first competitive test in the Long Jump in Glasgow where she leapt to 6.25.
In the first three rounds Martinez was second behind younger rival Simona La Mantia who opened with a notable 14.41m (just four centimetres off her Italian indoor under-23 record set last year during the World Indoor Championships in Budapest) in her opening jump.
Martinez overhauled La Mantia with 14.52 in her fourth jump, and after another foul in round five ended her competition with 14.48m.
The runway is fast and I have always received a strong support from the Turin crowd", said the Cuban born triple jumper during the first official press conference (14 April) to launch the Turin meeting which will take place in the stadium named after the late IAAF President Primo Nebiolo.
Martinez married the Italian Beppe Picotti in 1999 and became italian in the summer 2001, just a few days before the start of the IAAF World Championships in Edmonton where she finished a good fourth with 14.52.
Despite a knee injury which limited her indoor season Martinez won the silver medal at the 2005 European Indoor Championships in Madrid with 14.54 behind the Russian Viktoria Gurova (14.74).
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