By Roberto L. Quercetani (1922-2019)
One of the greatest feats in the history of Balkan Athletics bears the imprint of a tall, speedy and impressive 800 metres runnner, Luciano Susanj of Yugoslavia. As befits a true champion, he had his day of days on an important occasion, the 1974 European Championships held at Rome’s Stadio Olimpico, when he whipped a strong field, including such classy runners as Steve Ovett of Great Britain and Marcello Fiasconaro of Italy.
The latter was a former World record holder for the two-lap event, as the year before in Milan he had uncorked a performance of 1:43.7 (hand timing) after leading from start to finish – which is a most unusual happening at this distance.
In Rome, most of the spectators were obviously rooting for him and such a warm atmosphere probably led him to overestimate his Powers. He jumped into an early lead and tried to re-edit his ’73 Milan tactics, this time in a highly competitive race. As if “driven” by the steady cheers of the crowd, he covered the first 400 in a sizzling 50.1 secs. Rather surprisingly, others followed in his wake. Down the backstretch of the final lap, “March” [Fiasconaro] gave signs of fatigue and right after 600 meters (1:17.6) he was so to say swallowed by one, two, three men. Easily the liveliest in this group was Luciano Susanj, who ran away from all and had enough left to cover the last 200 in 26.3 to win in 1:44.07. The time moved him to no.4 in the all-time World list.
His badly beaten followers battled it out for second, and Ovett, a miler, got just that with 1:45.76. An exhausted Fiasconaro could do no better than sixth (1:46.3). As an eye-witness, I well remember the tremendous impact this feat had on both experts and laymen. Seldom, if ever, had a major two-lap race been won with such an insulting superiority. With his crazy pace, “March” took the best out of most of his rivals – only one survived well enough to tower above the rest, Susanj.
Yet the winner could not be described as an outsider. He had come to the Rome rendez-vous with a splendid seasonal record, including times of 1:45.1, 1:44.7 and 1:44.67 (those were the days when times to one-hundredth of a second were used only on big occasions). In fact, the authoritative German weekly Leichtathletik clearly stamped him as the pre-race favorite. At the end of that memorable season, Susanj could count 11 races at the two-lap distance. He was defeated only once by Mike Boit of Kenya in the Zurich Weltklasse meet (1:44.67 to 1:44.18).
The Yugoslav ace continued to perform at high level for two more years, yet he never again reached his former heights. At the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, he had to content with sixth (1:45.37) in a race won by Alberto Juantorena of Cuba, who chose that occasion to lower World record to 1:43.50.
Susanj was born at Rijeka, Croatia on 10 November 1948. He had an impressive build – 1.85m and 73 kg. He competed fort he AK Kvarner Club and coached by Zelimir Leskovac. For mst of his career he “dwelt” on the 400-800 axis. Actually, his debut in a major international competition was in the 400 metres of the 1969 European Championships when he as eliminated in the quarters with 48.4. He later won two titles at the European Indoors, 400 metres in 1973 (46.38) and 800 in 1974 (1:48.07). He reached his all-time best 45.93 in 1973 – by that time he chose to concentrate on the two-lap race whic he ran in 1:47.12 same year.
A truly great talent, Susanj could point to such times as 10.6 in 100 metres, 21.2 in 200 metres and 3:45.21 in 1500 metres. Several observers in his home country and elsewhere, praised him as a brave man off and on the track.
