The emblematic Cuban boxing coach Alcides Sagarra Carón suffered a hip fracture and had to undergo surgery from which he is recovering satisfactorily.
The National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (INDER) reported on its Facebook wall that the legendary coach is admitted to the Fructuoso Rodríguez orthopedic hospital in Havana.
Dozens of admirers and the general public have wished him a speedy recovery.
Sagarra was hospitalized urgently on Monday, a day after turning 90 years old, when several active and retired boxers came to congratulate him at his home in the Miramar neighborhood of the Playa municipality.
A former boxer living nearby revealed to the portal Cuballama that he had a prosthesis placed and has already been able to sit down.
Prior to this fracture, the award-winning professor had experienced mobility issues and complications from diabetes that he has suffered from for many years.
Another person close to Sagarra revealed that he never emotionally recovered from his unexpected replacement as the technical head of the national team in 2001, a decision made by then-INDE president Humberto Rodríguez that was highly questioned. A year earlier, at the Sydney Olympics, the iconic coach led his team to win four gold medals and two bronze medals.
"They told him it was for health reasons, but that was an excuse," the source emphasized now.
Native of Santiago de Cuba, Alcides Sagarra is the founder of the Cuban School of Boxing and an emblematic figure in world sports.
He directed the national team from its inception in 1964 until 2001, with 27 Olympic titles and another 48 championships at world tournaments, according to the magazine Jit.
Relevant exponents of that discipline passed through his hands, such as Teófilo Stevenson, Félix Savón, Ángel Herrera, Emilio Correa, Ariel Hernández, Héctor Vinent, Maikro Romero, Mario Kindelán, among many others.
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