Leonel Rocca

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Leonel Rocca (born January 21, 1915 in Mercedes , Uruguay, † June 19, 1965 ) was a Uruguayan cyclist .

Leonel Rocca, who initially played football for the Sandú Chico club in Mercedes in his youth, first appeared in cycling competitions in September 1934. On May 20 of the following year he was Uruguayan sprint champion and a week later took part in the Uruguayan championships, which took place on the Rambla Wilson . In 1936 he was Uruguayan champion in Montevideo despite his bike, which was comparatively unfit for competition . At the South American Championships in Santiago in 1938 , he won the sprint and 1000-meter time trial titles . He followed up with a victory at Torneo Internacional in 1940. At the South American Championships in 1941 he defeated the Italian star Bruno Loatti and broke through a quarter of a century of Argentine domination in this sport. Numerous records broken by him followed. In 1943, he also decided in addition to the Uruguayan and the Rioplatensian championship in his favor.

After that, Rocca also sought success in races in Europe. In 1946 he took part in the World Railroad Championships in Zurich , the following year in those in Paris and in 1948 in those in the Netherlands. He was also a member of the Uruguayan team at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London . In the competition there, he took fifth place in the sprint discipline at the Herne Hill cycling track . In 1950 he returned to the Uruguayan capital, where he coached the Uruguayan national team from 1951. After working as a coach in Mexico in the meantime, he settled there from 1957 to 1964 and led the Mexican national team to the greatest successes in their history to date. In the following year he returned to his home country, married Jenny Gamarra in Lima and died after an operation in the same year.

40 years after his death, the Velódromo in his hometown was named after him.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Leonel Rocca in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
  2. ↑ Leonel Rocca se paró en los pedales de la eternidad in El País , accessed on August 19, 2012
personal data
SURNAME Rocca, Leonel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Uruguayan cyclist
DATE OF BIRTH January 21, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Mercedes , Uruguay
DATE OF DEATH June 19, 1965