- Juan Carlos Zabala
Juan Carlos Zabala -aka: "El
Ñandú Criollo"- (October 11 ,1911 –January 24 ,1983 ) was an Argentine athlete, winner of the marathon race at the1932 Summer Olympics .Born in
Rosario , Juan Carlos Zabala played football andbasketball and did someswimming , before he met his future coachAlexander Stirling in 1927.Zabala ran his first marathon at the end of October, 1931. Ten days later he ran a new
world record in 30 km (1:42:30.4). Later, before the1936 Summer Olympics , Zabala would run a new world record in 20 km (1:04:00.2).Zabala's high peak was the Los Angeles Olympics. Zabala ran in the leading group almost the all distance. Just four kilometres to run, he broke free to finish 20
second s ahead ofSamuel Ferris fromGreat Britain . Zabala also participated at theBerlin Olympics, gaining sixth place at the 10,000 m, but couldn't defend his Olympic Champion title at the marathon race. Zabala got the lead from the start, but abandoned the race after 33 km when the main group caught him.Juan Carlos Zabala died in
Buenos Aires , aged 71.
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