Cuba’s Yeimar López in Jerez (© Juan José Úbeda)
Cuba's illustrious athletics history is dotted with great 800m runners. Everyone remembers the two-time world record holder Alberto Juantorena – now an IAAF Council Member - in the late 1970s, historians will point to the 1975 Pan American Games champion Luis Medina and Noberto Tellez, who won a silver medal at the 1997 IAAF World Championships in Athletics, also made a considerable mark in second half of the 1990s.
Now, Yeimar Lopez can add his name to the list in the wake of his astounding 1:43.07 run in the Spanish city of Jerez on Tuesday night (24).
His run moved him up to second in the 2008 season's list, behind the 1:42.69 clocked by Sudan's Abubaker Kaki at the ÅF Golden League meeting in Oslo earlier this month, in what is starting to look like it could be a vintage year for runners over two laps of the track.
It also moved him up to second place in the Cuban all-time rankings, leapfrogging the legendary Juantorena, whose best was his former World record of 1:43.44 set in 1977, to just behind the national record of Tellez, whose mark of 1:42.85 was set when finishing fourth at the 1996 Olympics.
"The race (in Jerez) was a great one and not just because of my own time. I was excited beforehand because (South Africa's) Mbulaeni Mulaudzi was also going to be in it and so I knew that it could be a fast race. I had never raced him before but he's a great runner, he's won medals at some major championships and so I knew he was the one to follow.
"But I felt so good at around 250m that I decided that was my moment to take my chance and just went for it. Down the home straight I did not dare look around, but I could almost feel him coming back at me, and I just said to myself 'keep going, keep going,” reflected Lopez on his run.
Mbulaeni, the Olympic silver medallist, did his best to haul in Lopez after the Cuban's change of gear put more than five metres between them but had to settle for second place in 1:43.61, the third best time of the year and even quicker than he ran in 2007 when he was the fastest man in the world.
Expected improvement
Lopez's performance may have come as a slight surprise to other middle-distance aficionados around the world - although he did win the Pan-American Games title last year in what was then a personal best of 1:44.58 - but it was no big shock to the runner himself.
"This year everything has been going right with my preparation. The early part of the year was spent at home in Cuba and I ran 1:45 in March. I wasn't running anything like that so early last year. Everything I had been doing in training suggested 1:43-something was possible here," added 25-year-old, who stands 1.94m tall.
'New Juntorena?’ ask again after Beijing!
The public address announcer in Jerez excitedly proclaimed Lopez as the 'new Juntorena' on several occasions but even though Lopez has now run faster than the icon who won the 1976 Olympic Games gold medal, and who is still the only Cuban to have won over 800m on the global stage, it he was a comparison he cautiously contradicted.
"I heard what was being said," smiled Lopez knowingly. "But I'm not the new Juantorena, at least not just yet. He put Cuban athletics on the map, the world knows more about Cuba thanks to him. He's got Olympic gold medals and the things that I've won so far certainly don't compare to his. Perhaps ask me again how I feel after the Olympics, things might be different but if I don't get an Olympic gold medal then I can't be compared to Juantorena even if I run in the 1:42s."
Potentially blocking his path to glory in Beijing are Kaki and also the Kenyan prodigy David Rudisha, among others.
"I've seen their times and their race in Oslo was a great race, I've seen it. They are great runners but let's see what happens at the Olympics. I don't fear them and I know how good they are. After this race, they might know that I'm around as well and what happens, happens," added Lopez, who has also never been on the start line with either Kaki or Rudisha before.
400m, his first love
Like his compatriots Juantorena and Tellez, Lopez is a runner whose first love was 400m and he is likely still to include a few outings over one lap of the track in his annual schedule but has now finally settling on the 800m following a few years of chopping-and-changing his focus of attention.
"In my early career I was more of a 400m runner who did a few 800m for fun and a good stamina work out. Now I'm the opposite, I'm an 800m runner who does some 400m races for fun and speed work.
"It's difficult to say when the change occurred. I went to the 2003 World Championships when I was just 21. In fact, I had my birthday in Paris just a few days before the heats of the 400m and I ran 45.11 in the semi-finals there, I was not too far from getting in the final and it's still my personal best. However, things didn't go the way I expected and I didn't improve in the next year or so I decided to change distances.
"I qualified for the 2005 World Championships in the 800m but didn't do well there. I then switched back to 400m in 2006 and won the Central American and Caribbean Games title but discussed things with my coach and we decided that I still had the best possibilities over the longer distance and changed again for last year," explained Lopez.
As all would agree, perhaps apart from some of his likely rivals in Beijing, it has finally become a change for the better.
Phil Minshull for the IAAF
