MEXICO: ATHLETICS - Mexican Olympic medallist Ana Guevara retires following row with sports body

Record ID: 303471

  • Title: MEXICO: ATHLETICS - Mexican Olympic medallist Ana Guevara retires following row with sports body
  • Date: 18th January 2008
  • Summary: MEXICO CITY, MEXICO (MAY 3, 2003) (REUTERS) AUDIENCE CHEERING DURING MEXICO CITY GRAND PRIX MEETING ANA GUEVARA RACING AUDIENCE CHEERING GUEVARA WINNING RACE GUEVARA CONGRATULATES FELLOW COMPETITORS BANNER SHOWING GUEVARA'S WORLD RECORD FOR 300 METRES IN A TIME OF 35.30 SECONDS
  • Embargoed: 2nd February 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Mexico
  • Country: Mexico
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVAEHWBN92BBEAG86QUHI4LCX9UK
  • Story Text: Top Mexican athlete Ana Guevara retires from athletics as a row simmers with Mexican sport authorities.
    Top Mexican athlete Ana Guevara, former 400-metre world champion and silver medallist at the 2004 Athens Olympics, said on Wednesday (January 16) she was retiring from the track following a bitter row with Mexico's sporting authorities.
    Guevara, aged 30, said she would not represent her country following a row after she requested the removal of Mexican Athletics Federation head Mariano Lara last year.
    Mexico's National Sports and Culture Commission is investigating Lara for mismanagement of funds. However, track and field's world governing body the IAAF has endorsed him.
    Guevara won the world 400-metre title in Paris in 2003 and finished just behind Bahamian Tonique Williams in the 400-metre Olympic final in Greece in 2004. She took fourth place behind Briton Christine Ohuruogu in the world championship final in Osaka, Japan, last August.
    Guevara, whose trademarks were to run in sunglasses and flex her right bicep and kiss it each time she won a race, had been expected to be one of the top Mexican medal prospects at the Beijing Olympics later this year.
    But Guevara said she was stepping away from competition.

    "It wasn't the time to retire. I'm leaving not as I would have hoped. It wasn't ideal for me to leave Mexican sport, but I can't do anything about it. I place a full stop. My spikes have been put away in the wardrobe of my house. There will no more races. My retirement from race tracks is definite," a sombre Guevara said during a news conference in Mexico City.
    She said sport in Mexico was plagued with corruption.

    "At this moment I can't bear to form a relationship and to report to those who don't work for the sport, those who don't think about sports people, in spite of saying that they work for the sport and sports people. It has been the opposite," she said.
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