5 reasons why Cuban hurdlers rock
In the second part of our series focusing on Cuban athletics, spikesmag.com takes a look at five reasons why its men’s sprint hurdlers have proved so damn good over the past 20 years….
Cuban hurdle coach Santiago Antunez points to the year 1986 as the genesis of the Cuban hurdling school – Emilio Valle had landed gold and bronze in the 400m and 110m hurdles, respectively, at the World Junior Championships to launch a distinguished international career.
Twenty-two years on and Dayron Robles won Olympic gold and broke the world record for the 110m hurdles in what was arguably the greatest ever year for Cuban hurdling.
Other Cuban sprint hurdlers to make an impact in the intervening years have been 1996 Olympic finalist Erik Batte, the fourth-place finisher in the 2001 World Championships Yoel Hernandez, and the 2000 Olympic champion Anier Garcia.
We take a look at five reasons why Cuban high hurdlers rock….
1 –
School structure
As spikesmag.com reported yesterday, the Cuban school structure is the envy of the world; kids are given the chance to do a shed load of sports from the age of five, the best athletes are filtered into the elite 15 sports schools across school the country -- winning the chance to be given the best coaching -- and they are afforded loads of time to hone their skills.
Iconic Cuban sprint hurdles coach, Santiago Antunez, believes this is one key reason why Cuba has managed to produce some many potential top-class hurdlers.
“Because of our school structure, more people are introduced to sport and it gives us chance to create more champions,” he says.
2 –
Inspiration
Cuba has always had an outward approach to learning from different coaching styles and approaches. This has proved key in developing its own hurdling school.
Soviet coaching models heavily influenced them initially but they later took a close look at the US system of hurdling success. They also studied the French system -- which produced the 1976 Olympic 110m hurdles champion Guy Drut -- and the British model, which unearthed former world record holder Colin Jackson. They then managed to take an element of the various approaches to produce a hybrid of their own.
3 –
Pearls of wisdom
The different generations of Cuban hurdlers have been willing to pass on their expertise to the next generation. It began with Emilio Valle to Erik Batte and continued through to Anier Garcia helping out Dayron Robles.
As Batte said: “I was lucky to be in Emilio Valle’s group – he was like a God to me. I had only previously seen him on TV, so to train with him was amazing. He taught me the importance of training. I learned from him that I would have to try harder in training otherwise I would not get the results.”
Similarly Garcia has been on hand to help Robles. “After he broke the world record he came back to Cuba and I congratulated him and told him he was doing very well,” Garcia tells spikesmag.com.
“He was very anxious about the Olympic Games and I just told him to stay cool. The Olympics are always going to be on an exact day and exact time, so prepare well and everything will be fine.”
4 –
Santiago Antunez
Quite simply the world’s most successful coach, Antunez guided Garcia and Robles to Olympic titles and also steered Valle, Batte and Hernandez through much of their careers. He is regarded in reverential tones for his technical expertise and motivational skills.
Garcia said of his former coach: “He is like a father to us. I still have permanent contact with him. He is great, he is sensational and he teaches you how to overcome mistakes and be confident. He never ceases to give you advice – I would say there is nothing about the hurdles he does not know.”
5 –
Application of science
Success in modern sport often requires scientific help. And Cuban hurdling is no different; a nine-year long study was launched in 2003 -- at a sports school in the central Cuban province in Villa Clara -- which covered every area from biomechanics to nutrition.
Antunez says it has been hugely beneficial to Cuban hurdling: “We found when Anier Garcia had stomach disorders in training and competition it was because he was eating too fast and not chewing his food properly, so we guided him to avoid this and things began to improve.”
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Catch part three right here on spikesmag.com tomorrow.
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