Thursday, August 23, 2007

Life is short... running makes it seem longer.

Juantorena
Artist Unknown, 1970s, ICAIC (Instituto Cubano del Arte y la Industria Cinematográficos)

This is a bright poster, which announces a documentary by Luis Felipe Bernaza about a Cuban sports hero, Alberto Juantorena. He is a former Cuban track athlete.

In 1973 he won the 400m at the World University Games in Moscow, and the following year he headed the world rankings, with a time of 44.7sec recorded at Turin on 24 July. In 1975, he produced the second-fastest time of the year, 44.80sec, when he finished second at the Pan-American Games in Mexico City on 18 August.

In 1976 at the Montreal Olympics Juantorena made it to the final of 400m, and led the field for most of the race, eventually winning in a world record time of 1:43.50. Three days later, he also won the 400 m final, setting a low-altitude world record of 44.26. Winning in two running disciplines during the same event was an amazing achievement, which gave Alberto his nickname El Caballo (the horse in Spanish).