Arquímedes Herrera, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetArquímedes Herrera
Venezuelan sprinter
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Bobures, Venezuela
About Arquímedes Herrera
- Arquímedes Herrera (August 8, 1935 – May 30, 2013) was a Venezuelan track and field athlete who competed in the sprint events and was ranked #4 in the world in the 100 m in 1963.
- As a teenager Herrera spent time in the Venezuelan military, taking up his athletics career after his discharge.
- He claimed three medals at the 1963 Pan American Games held in São Paulo, Brazil.
- In the final of the 200m dash three athletes crossed the finish line with the same time 21.2 seconds.
- The Photo finish defined the Venezuelan Rafael Romero stay with gold medal; American Ollan Cassell, with silver; and Herrera, with the bronze.
- In 1964 he equaled the world record 200-meter dash in 20.5 seconds and also participated at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, where he made the semi-finals in both the 100 metres and 200 metres and was a member of the Venezuelan team which finished sixth in the final of the 4 × 100 metres relay. Herrera was a claimant to the Masters M35 100 metres world record, running a hand timed 10.3 while taking a silver medal in the 1970 Bolivarian Games in Maracaibo on August 29, 1970.
- In the transitional period, hand times were acceptable.
- His record held until it was beaten by an automatically timed 10.28 by Olympic champion Allan Wells almost 17 years later.
- The record was beaten intrinsically by an automatic 10.50 set by Delano Meriwether at the Penn Relays in 1979.
- Four days later, Herrera added the M35 200 metres record at 21.5.
- That record lasted was tied two years later but not surpassed for almost 6 years. After his sports career ended, he worked as a coach and as a judge with the Venezuelan Athletics Federation.
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