Ana Fidelia Quirot back to track as Daimi Pernia starts World Record quest
17 January 2000 – Havana, Cuba – Cuba’s Ana Fidelia Quirot, double world champion at 800m, expressed her intention of returning to the track by the end of the year, her coach Leandro Peñalver declared today.
Quirot, silver medallist at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona at the two laps race, gave birth to her first child ten months ago and has already started training again, said the Cuban coach. He added that she is very likely to come back to official competition once the Sydney Olympics are over, in late September.
The "Tormenta del Caribe", as Quirot is known in Cuba, is going through a special moment of her life following the pregnancy and the maternity, said the official Cuban agency Prensa Latina. "She feels more confident and peaceful. Before, she felt the pressure every woman experiences: that of being a good mother.
Quirot was victim of a domestic accident back in early 1993 when her upper body was burnt at 38%. After extensive surgery and with great strength, she came back to international competition at the Central American and Caribbean Games in 1993 where she won a silver medal. She went on to win the 800m World titles in Gothenburg 1995 and Athens 1997.
Her brilliant career led her to be named one of the top ten Cuban sports persons of the century after a survey made by the weekly review Bohemia, one of the oldest publications in Latin America.
Cuba’s Daimi Pernia announced today her intention of breaking the 400m hurdles World Record, which belongs to America’s Kim Batten with 52.61 since 1995, by the end of the year.
Pernia became 1999 World Champion in Seville where she clocked 52.89 just 28 hundredths of a second off the World Record mark. In the World Championships final though, she hit the final hurdle with her trail leg and almost fell before regaining speed and crossing the finish line a mere hundredth of second ahead of Morocco’s Nezha Bidouane.
The tall, slim hurdler told the National News Agency in Cuba, Prensa Latina, that her 2000 main objectives also include a place on the Olympic 400m hurdles podium.
Pernia will begin her Olympic campaign in February competing in the Memorial Rafael Fortún in Camaguey, a few kilometres east of Havana. She will then concentrate on training in Cuba before participating in a few international meetings this summer.
In 1999, Pernia won the World University Games in Palma de Mallorca (Spain), the Panamerican Games in Winnipeg (Canada) and the World Championships in Seville.
Thanks to these numerous successes she was awarded the Cuban and Latin American and Caribbean Athlete of the Year award presented by the Prensa Latina agency.