Pedro Leopoldo Carrera

Pedro Leopoldo Carrera
Carrera at the 1954 Pentathlon World Cup in Buenos Aires
Personal details
birthday	June 19, 1914
place of birth	Tres Arroyos, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina
date of death	2nd September 1963
Place of death	Mendozza, Argentina
nationality	Argentina
Achievements Unless otherwise stated, the information relates to the “three cushion” discipline.
World Championships:
5 ×
Continental Championships:
4 ×
Other tournaments:
s. successes

Pedro Leopoldo Carrera (born June 19, 1914 in Tres Arroyos Province of Buenos Aires , Argentina , † September 2, 1963 in Mendoza ) was an Argentine carom player and the first world champion to set the mark of 1,000 in the general average (GD).

Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires

Life

childhood

At a young age he started playing billiards in the “Café La Angelita” that was in his hometown. The cafe owner, Juan Fernández, allowed the children to play carom when school was over. At the age of 13, his father had just died, he moved to Buenos Aires with his uncle to study at the Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires .

His passion for “green fabric and ivory balls” brought him one afternoon, when he was just 15 years old, to go into an old café that, like many cafés back then, served as a billiard room. There he met Roberto Frai, as he later told the newspaper "El Laborista" in the context of a series of autobiographies, with whom he played his "first match". He lost 20: 6 when the pool clock ran out and they ran out of money to continue playing. This meeting and the friend he found and who accompanied him for life stayed in his memory.

International career

As in his hometown, he had no serious competition in the capital, Buenos Aires. Every game against Carrera was a losing game. With his impeccable game he reached a long list of followers and fans, including Juan Duarte, brother of Eva Perón , wife of the Argentine President Juan Domingo Perón , who supported him on almost all of his trips to Europe.

At the age of 24 he entered the Argentine Billiards Championship for the first time in 1939, where he won a triumph in the free game and in three cushion. In 1950 he became world champion (free game) for the first time in Madrid, and in 1951 world champion in cadre 47/2. Carrera was arguably the most comprehensive billiards player at the time.

In the course of his sporting career, Carrera set numerous records, such as the "Atlético Racing Club" in 1942, a club he represented for many years and where he scored a series of 1,000 billiards in fifty minutes . He also knew how to adapt to the new times and innovations, like in 1952, during the Argentine championship in three cushion. A technical innovation was used in this tournament, which heated the tables with ultraviolet rays, which kept the slate and the boards at a uniform temperature.

Revolutionary years from 1955

In the book "El hombre del clavel blanco", biography of the five-time world champion Carrera, the author Luis Alberto Venosa explains that after the fall of the government of General Perón in September 1955, the "Libertadora Revolution" began a "witch hunt" by which affected thousands of artists, writers, journalists and athletes. This persecution, which according to the words of the Argentine historian Victor Lupo was tantamount to a "sports genocide", influenced Carrera's career and he fled to Brazil to work as a billiards teacher in a jockey club in São Paulo . The new de facto government set up in Argentina condemned more than 120 amateur athletes who were declared "professionals" for allegedly receiving benefits from the Peronist government when in reality it was simple economic aid and / or prices for the development of the activity were negotiated under a state policy.

Retirement

The "Premios Konex Prize"

Carrera, who liked to wear a tuxedo with a white carnation on his lapel, was a kind and generous man, inconspicuous, and he made a lot of money. As quickly as he earned it, as quickly it was lost again, he was a dandy who soon experienced the effects of his life. The endless nights of billiards, the 40 daily cigarettes he smoked and the alcohol had begun to show him the other side. So began the downfall of his career.

In 1961 he returned to Argentina and settled in Mendoza . In 1961 and 1962 he took part in a few Argentine tournaments, but he was no longer the Carrera from then. He died at the age of only 49 and was buried in the Azul cemetery.

Honors

In 1980, more than 17 years after his death, Carrera was posthumously awarded the Premios Konex in platinum as the best billiards player in Argentine history and also with the "Diploma al Mérito".

successes

• Three-cushion world championship : 1952 1953
• Pentathlon World Championship : 1954
• Free game world championship : 1950, 1953
• Cadre 47/2 World Championship : 1951
• Cadre 45/2 World Championship : 1947
• Three Cushion Pan American Championships : 1950
• Pan American Championships: 3 × (1 × cadre 47/2, 1 × free game , 1 × cadre 71/2 )
• Argentine championships: 20 × (5 × three cushion, 7 × cadre 47/2; 7 × free game, 1 × cadre 71/2)

Swell:

Web links

Commons : Pedro Leopoldo Carrera  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Telephone interview with Marilé Carrera, daughter of Carreras. on YouTube (Spanish)
• Luis Alberto Venosa: El Hombre Del Clavel Blanco . ISBN 978-987-33-6716-8 (Spanish, wixsite.com - biography about Carrera).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} player profile Pedro Leopoldo Carrera. Kozoom , accessed November 2, 2013 (Spanish).  
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Pedro Leopoldo Carrera. Premio Konex de Platino 1980: Billar. Fundación Konex.Consultado, 2010, archived from the original on November 5, 2013 ; Retrieved November 2, 2013 (Spanish).  
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Carlos Araujo: The great Pedro Leopoldo Carrera. An extraordinary Argentine billiards player, he won the title on 31 occasions: 5 world championships, 3 South American championships. SerArgentino, May 4, 2018, archived from the original on October 18, 2019 ; accessed on October 18, 2019 (English).  

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