The Cuban Olympic champion Anier García He is one of those men who never goes unnoticed for his friendliness and good character. Purebred Santiaguero, at 46 years old, he is in India as a coach, like the triple jumper Yoandri Betanzos and the Olympic champion wrestler Yandro Quintana.
What are you doing in such a distant destination, my dear Anier?
Look at Julita, fighting. Neither more nor less than fighting, I teach what gave me so much glory. I train girls and boys in 100 and 110 with hurdles that are very similar to me, as well as 400 c/v.
I belong to a private institution, Sports Institute, sponsored by several people who love physical exercise and high-performance sports, all coordinated by the National Athletics Federation of India. They carefully follow the marks that are achieved.
We have recruited, there is undeveloped talent. Within what we have done, they are doing well, they have what they need to develop: equipment, tracks, adequate food, studies.
I live in Belari, a town in Canataca, with my wife. I am hired from January 2022 to 2025. It is practically an Olympic cycle in which I have to draw up immediate tactics and medium and long-term strategies. I was hired through my friends Betanzos and Yandro.
You know I like teaching. I had ventured with athletes from Mexico and Cuba so I gladly agreed to come, although of course, it is another culture; but we adapt.
Why don't you train the hurdlers of the Cuban national team?
I was training them after my return from Mexico. I returned because I wanted to venture into private businesses that I agreed to develop and, in the meantime, the then commissioner Yipsi Moreno called me to train in the fences area and I was interested in the proposal.
I had two athletes who could have made records, could make their way on the slopes of the world. This was in 2018 and everything was going well, but those terrible years 2019-2020 that we experienced due to the pandemic stopped everything.
Add to that that those two athletes, Jordan O'Farril, first, and Roger Valentín, later, set their sights on new horizons. Those guys were training at full speed, they were doing very well and their decision really hit me.
Both could have gotten the marks to be able to go to Tokyo 2020, but it didn't work out. O'Farril, without competing, without results, went to the Pan American Games and then, not achieving the times for the Japanese event, they did not ride him on the European tour.
That's where his disappointment came and mine too. It is no secret to anyone that speed requires skills, if you don't run there are no marks. I don't know what happened that neither the technical director nor the commission supported us. He ran only 13.40, 13.50. With my advice I would have gone down and made time for Tokyo, but it is easier to destroy illusions than to foster them. And now that?
For his part, Roger Valentín Iribarne, representing the Portuguese club Benfica, has excelled on the winter circuit, rubbing shoulders with the best in the field, including the American Grant Conway.
Anyway, let's get back to your life Anier. You had a long and emotional career as an international hurdler. Memorable moments?
There are several: the most spectacular, my Olympic gold in Sydney 2000. For every athlete, the Olympic Games are the highest aspiration within the amateur world; For me, it's been great. You were there. You were the first one to interview me. You collected first-hand all my emotion, my joy.
And four years later, that unexpected bronze, incredible even if you don't believe it, made me even more happy: six months without training, injured, without competing and being able to get on the podium. That is unspeakable! Nobody, except my coach Santiaguito Antúnez, trusted me.
And moments that bring you sadness?
The injury before Beijing, barely a month before. I was doing very well, I could have won my third Olympic medal and at a rally in Poland I had an injury: a rupture of the adductor muscle in my right leg and at 32 years old, I decided to leave the slopes.
Anier, your opinion of the increasing exodus of Cuban athletes competing under other flags?
Look Julita, that's like a pandemic. I don't criticize them, I refuse to criticize them. All people have the right to dream, to live as human beings. The situation that the people of Cuba are experiencing is a secret to no one. Starting with the fact that we ourselves do not have the means to develop an athlete in full condition.
The world is evolution and no one can stop it. What worked, in our case it worked but it is no longer the same, nor similar. Changes have to be made and they are not made and, in the meantime, the athlete loses his useful life.
Of course I would like everyone to compete for our land but that is no longer the case. I, particularly, am proud of each of their triumphs even if they compete for another flag.
However, it hurts me, because they were trained in Cuba and many of their successes belong to that first coach they had in the EIDE or the one they later had in the national team.
If Anier García were a young talent, what would he do?
Phew! I do not know what to answer. Right now I am in another country, here in India trying to raise the level of several hurdlers. If you look at it it can be considered the same.
In Cuba now there is not a single 110 hurdles athlete, when we were a power in that specialty since Alejandro Casañas, Emilio Valle, Dayron Robles, Orlando Ortega, Olympic runner-up for Spain... to only mention four although there were many more. Now they don't exist. What's more, I can assure you that India is better right now. If they hold an athletic competition between Cuba and India, the Indians win widely, what do you think?
I am working with pleasure, with all the conditions. I want them to respect me as a coach and they respect me. Right now I can't talk to you about chronos because I am in a phase of development of my students; See who can and who can't. I have already qualified for the Asian Games and I aspire to be able to obtain tickets to the World Youth Athletics Championships.
To speak of Anier García is to refer not only to the Olympic champion of Sydney 2000 but also to the holder of the Roofed World Cup in Paris 1997 and the Pan American Games in Winnipeg 1999, in addition to his second place in the World Cups in Seville 99 and Edmonton 2001 and his third in the Bajo Techo of the same year in Lisbon and 2003 in Birmingham.
His brilliant career closes with a bronze in Athens 2004, for many his best performance in life and what, according to his coach Santiaguito Antúnez, makes him the best historical hurdler in Cuban athletics. His personal best is 13 seconds flat, timed at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Future of Anier García? How, where do you place it?
On the moon! Ha ha. Wherever they need me and I have the conditions to work, I will go. For now, I'm here working hard to get these guys ahead. I tell you that I don't know if I will extend my contract because the culture has nothing to do with the Cuban culture, although with my wife by my side, I feel better. Furthermore, we are expecting a boy, which fills me with joy.
And if in this lapse I get a talented athlete who can reach top levels in the universal field and track, then I would dedicate myself body and soul to him, to get him to break the 13 seconds, which is my top mark and my dream is for a student of mine to break that barrier.
I have known Anier since he joined the national team at a very young age and I am sure that whatever he sets his mind to, he achieves it. Don't be surprised if in a few years, Indian hurdlers qualify for the Olympic and World Cup finals and why not? They can climb an international podium.
What do you think?
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