The athletics world is in mourning after learning of the death this Monday of one of its great legends, Viktor Saneyev, triple Olympic triple jump champion. Saneyev has died of a heart attack at the age of 77 at his residence in Sideny, according to the Russian news agency Sputnik.
Saneyev, born in Georgia in 1945, began his career in high jump before switching to triple jump in 1963 under the supervision of Hakob Kerselyan.
The change could not go better since Saneyev made history in this discipline by proclaiming himself champion of the modality in the Olympic Games in Mexico 68, Munich 72 and Montreal 76, in addition to achieving the silver medal at the Moscow 80 Games.
Especially remembered is that triple jump final at the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games, where Saneyev won what is considered the best triple jump competition in history in which three athletes broke the world record four times, and in which Saneyev took the gold with a mark of 17.39 ahead of the Brazilian Nelson Prudencio and the Italian Giuseppe Gentile.
After his sporting retirement, Saneyev continued to be linked to the world of athletics in the sports structure of the Tbilisi Dynamo. However, after the fall of the Soviet Union, Saneyev decided to go to Australia, where he continued working as a coach.