Pedro Roque Favier

Pedro Roque Favier (born March 13, 1968 in Cayo Mambí , Holguín Province , † May 24, 2015 in Havana ) was a Cuban wrestler . He was world champion in 1987 in the Greco-Roman style flyweight.

Career

After Roque began his athletic career as a track and field athlete (track runner), his talent as a wrestler was discovered before he took part for the first time at the age of twelve in a tournament held on the grounds of the Guatemala sugar factory , which he immediately won. In 1981 he entered the sports promotion boarding school (EIDE) in his home province of Holguín, in 1983 he entered the sports school (ESPA), and shortly afterwards, at the age of only 16, he was accepted into the national team. He was trained in the Greco-Roman style.

His first international tournament was the Granma held in Las Tunas in 1984 , where he won the gold medal in the 48 kilogram class. In 1985 he became the first Cuban champion in Camagüey .

He achieved his great success from 1986 in the second lightest weight class , the flyweight, which at that time had its weight limit of 52 kg.

In 1986 he took part in the Junior World Championship in Schifferstadt , where he won the title ahead of Igor Gosi from the Soviet Union and Krysztof Sizymanski from Poland . In the same year he also won the Pan American Championships in Colorado Springs in front of Juan Bernardino Cortés from Mexico and Lewis Dorrance from the United States . After winning eight tournaments in nine competitions in 1986, he was named Young Athlete of the Year in Cuba.

In 1987 Pedro Roque also won the Pan American Games in Indianapolis in flyweight ahead of Bernardo Olvera González from Mexico and Shawn Sheldon from the United States. At the subsequent World Championships in Clermont-Ferrand , he celebrated the greatest success of his career at the age of 19: Just ten days after his victory in Indianapolis, he became world flyweight champion and defeated Roman Kierpacz from Poland in the final battle . Subsequently, Roque was named "Sportsman of the Year" by the Cuban State Sports Association - making it the first representative of northeast Cuba to receive this honor.

In 1988 he won the Pan American Championship title, relegating Juan Bernardino Cortes and Mark Fuller from the United States to the places. This success was Pedro Roque's last great success at international championships. He could not take part in the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul because Cuba boycotted them for political reasons. In 1988 he took part in seven international tournaments and did not lose a single fight.

After 1988, Pedro Roque did not appear at any international championships, although he was only 20 years old. According to official information, he was temporarily removed from the national team in February 1989 when he was unable to meet the specified weight limit on the occasion of several competitions. Despite urging from experts and friends, he did not return to competitive sports. From 1989 Raúl Martínez Alemán was the starter of Cuba in international championships in his weight class .

The state sports authorities cited respiratory arrest as the cause of his untimely death in 2015.

International championships

year	space	competition	Weight class	comment
1986	1.	Junior World Championships (Juniors) in Schifferstadt	To fly	before Igor Gosi, USSR a. Krzysztof Szymanski, Poland
1986	1.	Pan American Championships in Colorado Springs	To fly	before Juan Bernardino Cortés, Mexico a . Lewis Dorrance, USA
1986	2.	World Cup in Oak Lawns	To fly	behind Alexander Ignatenko , USSR , in front of Toshikazu Fujinami, Japan and László Bíró , Hungary
1987	1.	Pan American Games in Indianapolis	To fly	before Bernardo Olvera González, Mexico a. Shawn Sheldon , USA
1987	1.	World Cup in Clermont-Ferrand	To fly	before Roman Kierpacz , Poland , Alexander Ignatenko , Serge Robert , France a . Valentin Krumow , Bulgaria
1987	3.	FILA Grand Prix Gala in Budapest	To fly	behind Roman Kierpacz u. Valentin Krumow , before Serge Robert a. Csaba Vadász , Hungary
1987	3.	World Cup Albany	To fly	behind Anatoli Romanjuk, USSR a. Jon Rønningen , Norway
1988	1.	Pan American Championship	To fly	before Juan Bernardino Cortés a. Mark Fuller , USA
1988	1.	World Cup in Athens	To fly	before Alexander Stepanjan, USSR a. Koji Shimizu, Japan

Note: all competitions in the Greco-Roman style, WM = world championship, flyweight, back then up to 52 kg body weight

literature

• Trade journal Der Ringer

Web links

• Profile of Pedro Roque Favier at the Institute for Applied Training Science
• Pedro Roque Favier in the official Cuban online encyclopedia EcuRed (Spanish)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Pedro Roque Favier in the official Cuban online encyclopedia EcuRed , accessed on May 26, 2015 (Spanish)
2. ^ ^{A b c} Fallció el estelar luchador Pedro Roque Favier. In: Jit of May 24, 2015 (Spanish)
3. ↑ Calixto González Betancourt: Un hasta siempre para Roque. ( Memento of the original from May 26, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Ahora from May 24, 2015 (Spanish)