Alberto Juantorena of Cuba...Double Gold Champion at the 1976 Olympics

The Sporting Witness programme on the BBC World Service covers various notable performances from the history of sport. Recently, they covered the story of Alberto Juantorena of Cuba, a double Gold Champion at the 1976 Olympics.

Early in his career, the 6ft 2in Alberto Juantorena tried to get on the Cuban Basketball team but didn't quite make the grade. A Polish coach named Zygmunt Zabierzowski persuaded him to try athletics and Juantorena soon became one of the best athletes in the world over 400m.

At the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, he was the hot favourite for Gold in the 400m. His coach however had other ideas and convinced him to try the 800m as well, a distance that was completely new to Juantorena.

After getting through to the 800m final, the 400m specialist with his 9ft stride not only won Olympic Gold but also set a new world record for the event with a time of 1:43:50.

Doing a double in the 400m/800m is highly unusual and is a feat that is very unlikely to be repeated.

The BBC podcast can be heard HERE

Video clip.....

BBC Podcast looking back at the start of the barefoot running revolution

Back in 2009, the book Born to Run was published and it sparked a whole craze about barefoot and minimalist running. The origins of that book can be traced back to 2006 when an ultra distance race took place in Copper Canyon in a remote part of Mexico. The race between America's best ultramarathon runner Scott Jurek and a tribe of Tarahumara indians inspired a revolution in the sport.

Recently the radio programme Sporting Witness on the BBC World Service looked back at that event. The 9 minute podcast can be heard HERE