Víctor Serrano

Víctor Serrano

Serrano at the Saint Silvester Road Race
Personal information
Nationality	Puerto Rican
Born	(1949-09-20) 20 September 1949
Sport
Sport	Long-distance running
Event(s)	Marathon

Víctor Sanchez Serrano (born 20 September 1949) is a Puerto Rican long-distance runner. He competed in the marathon at the 1976 Summer Olympics.

Personal life

Serrano is from Coamo, Puerto Rico. In 1966, Serrano dropped out of primary school to work. He began running competitively at age 21, later than most other athletes, in 1970 and ran the San Blas Half Marathon in Coamo that year. Serrano finished around the top 30, running about 1:18 hours with no formal training, leading to his talent being discovered by Coach Cheto who would continue to train him.

Because he had not finished his studies, Serrano had to study at night while training in the daytime. He began winning races over several distances from 10 km to the half marathon. He spent one year at a catholic university in San Germán, where he participated in cross country running with teammate Eduardo Vera. After some time at University of Puerto Rico at Aguadilla, he was then recruited on a scholarship to the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus for running, increasing his training to 120 to 140 miles per week while racing both on the track and in road races.

While many of his Puerto Rican rivals went to the 1976 Boston Marathon to secure qualification for the 1976 Olympics, Serrano chose to stay in Puerto Rico and run local races, believing he could achieve a faster time at home. He won a race in Ponce, Puerto Rico and secured his Olympic spot along with teammate José de Jesús.

He moved to Cidra, Puerto Rico after his marriage in 1980.

Career

Serrano was selected as part of the Puerto Rican delegation to the 1972 Saint Silvester Road Race where he finished 23rd. He would later be selected to run at two other Saint Silvester races.

Serrano achieved modest personal bests of 2 minutes and 4 minutes in the 800 m and 1500 m, but he said that his strengths were in the longer distances. Serrano qualified for the 1973 Central American and Caribbean Championships in the 5000 metres, 10,000 metres, and marathon. He achieved his best position in the 10,000 metres, placing 7th overall. He would go on to break the Puerto Rican national record in the 10,000 m, running about 30 minutes, representing Puerto Rico at international championships in Mexico and Trinidad and Tobago.

Serrano then qualified in the marathon at the 1976 Summer Olympics. He ran a time of 2:34:59.6 hours to finish 53rd overall.

Serrano finished in 3rd place at the 1975 Puerto Rican Hispanic Half Marathon in New York City, running a time of 1:13:31.

In November 1976, Serrano was one of three representatives from the Puerto Rico Amateur Athletics Association at the Berwick Marathon.

Serrano was scheduled to start the 1977 Boston Marathon, but he never ran the race. In November 1977, Serrano was the top Inter-American University of Puerto Rico finisher at the NCAA Division III men's cross country championships on a snow-filled course in Ohio. Most of his teammates had never seen snow before, and Serrano was "frightened" when his chest began hurting due to the cold weather but persevered to finish in 20th place.

Serrano set his marathon personal best of 2:30:16 hours at the 1978 Boston Marathon.

References

This article "Víctor Serrano" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Víctor Serrano. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

📰 Article(s) of the same category(ies)

• Choorian (film franchise)
• Adrian Pisarello
• Dalip Tahil
• Yorkshire Brewhouse
• D. A. Kalpaja
• Democrat Party (Peru, Nicolini)
• Shanta Apte

---