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GONZALEZ LEUDIN
How long is this suspension
going to last?
Yoel Tejeda Pérez
Since
becoming a high performance athlete, Leudin Claro
González (Holguin, October 19, 1973) has had to
overcome several setbacks, though, in his days on
the national team, his main obstacle was the shadow
of injuries, which included operations on his knee
cap and fractured tibia and ribs.
His
physical and mental strength allowed him to overcome
these difficulties and win a gold medal at the 18th
Central American and Caribbean Games in 1998, in
Maracaibo, Venezuela, one of his greatest triumphs.
Another fractured leg destroyed his chances of
competing in the Pan American Games in Winnipeg
1999, when he then made the difficult decision to
retire from active sports as a result of repeated
injury and ailments which lingered, and some
limitations that prevented him from facing the
rigors of competition-level training.
However, since then our taekwondo team has had an
excellent coach in Leudin, who took on this position
as a new raison d’ętre and as another way of
supporting the sport’s development, in which he had
been involved since the age of 14.
Five
years ago, however, the native of Sagua de Tánamo
has been living a nightmare that prevents him from
working with taekwondo. In the 2008 Beijing
Olympics, his student Angel Valodia Matos, Olympic
gold medallist in Sydney 2000, committed the serious
infraction of physically assaulting a referee who
had incorrectly and absurdly ruled against him. This
provoked an immediate decision by the World
Taekwondo Federation, to sanction the offender and
his coach with a lifetime ban. Quite an unreasonable
sanction for coach Leudin, who was given no
opportunity to speak in his own defense. Leudin
spoke with Granma about this ruling and other
issues.
What
happened to Valodia in that fateful fight?
From a
psychological standpoint, Valodia was fine,
considering other irregularities that occurred
there. But he was doing well and winning the fight
normally until, as a result of a hand movement, he
suffered an injury, little of which has been
mentioned, although he had four stitches on his big
toe of his left foot.
The
doctor was attending to him and he felt able to
continue fighting, but the umpire made the decision
to end the fight by calling time, and declaring the
wrong winner, disregarding Valodia’s circumstances.
In addition, the regulations allow for another call
of “indefinite time”, whereby the athlete can carry
on in the competition, but needs more time to be
seen by the doctor. However, the referee ruled
unfairly, when the logical thing would have been to
determine the winner in a fair fight.
How
have you dealt with the lifetime ban?
We
never wanted such a thing to happen, but it happened
and we take responsibility for it. As we disagreed
with such an excessive penalty, we have taken steps
to address it through the Cuban Sports’ Institute,
INDER, to review the case. We look forward to a
positive response, time has passed and I really
don’t think I deserve the disqualification, as I did
not hurt anyone. I hope that they can reverse the
decision and reinstate me.
How
does Fidel’s Reflection in which he mentioned the
case influence you?
I
always dreamed of the opportunity to thank the
Comandante en Jefe
for having spoken up for us, knowing he would be
criticized for it later. He has never abandoned any
of his children. His words affected me because I had
decided to leave the sport after the event, but I’m
staying in the fight so far, to be able to return to
my duties so as I can give him a medal of
appreciation.
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