Mexican athletes push for change

With the Beijing Olympics less than four months away, Mexico’s governing body for track and field is edging closer to resolving a years-long controversy that has already claimed the country’s most decorated runner as well as the head of the track federation.

Officials of the governing body (FMA) will meet later this month to elect a successor to suspended president Mariano Lara, whose nearly five-year reign has been marked by charges of incompetence, negligence and fraud.

Ana Guevara, a world champion and three-time Pan American Games champion at 400 meters, announced her “definite retirement” in January after a series of clashes with Lara and Carlos Hermosillo, a former Mexican soccer star who now heads the national commission for physical culture and sports, known by the Spanish acronym CONADE.

Last fall CONADE, citing irregularities, launched an investigation into mismanagement of funds by FMA, leading to the suspension of Lara and his top aides. A successor is expected to be chosen at an FMA assembly scheduled for April 27.

“Mariano and his people were simply dedicated to do other things, not supporting athletes,” said German Silva, a two-time winner of the New York City marathon who now coaches in Mexico.

Although complaints about Lara date to shortly after he took over FMA in 2003, they came to a head during last summer’s world track championships in Osaka, Japan, when Mexican athletes found they had no uniforms. And when the uniforms did arrive, they didn’t fit.

“What happened in Osaka was unbelievable,” said Giovanni Lanaro, a former Cal State Fullerton athlete and Mexico’s national-record holder in the pole vault. “They ordered the worst-looking uniforms. They didn’t fit anybody. Some people had to run without a Mexican uniform.

“It didn’t just happen at the World Championships. It happened many other places. The guys that were there, they did nothing.”

Despite repeated requests, Lara and Hermosillo were not made available for comment

In January, Guevara announced her retirement, using the news conference to denounce Lara. And though she refused to make specific charges, she said she sent a detailed letter, signed by 25 of the 27 Mexicans who competed in Osaka, to President Felipe Calderon detailing her accusations.

“I’m not going to change the world, but if I transform myself I’ll transform my world,” she said in an interview with the Mexican sports journal Record. “I’m breaking the silence to make things better. I’d prefer to annoy with the truth rather than remain complacent with the lies.”

Lanaro says he hopes that has an impact.

“This is the best athlete to ever put on a Mexican uniform in any sport,” he said. “And for her to just step down like that, really she basically put the blame on our federation. It should make a big impact.”

Guevara, however, isn’t so sure. Last summer she had promised not to compete in Beijing unless Lara resigned. But this month’s elections, she has suggested, will change nothing.

“We see ourselves before a stage where they will cover up a resignation and everything will stay the same,” she said. “It’s not just one person who was responsible.”

Silva agrees, pointing out that the commission that called the April 27 election as part of its mandate to reorganize FMA includes Lara’s former treasurer, among other holdovers.

“The problem is, we’re going forward with the same people,” he said. “I don’t see how we’re going to revolutionize things, unfortunately. In my opinion, that requires people with new blood, with experience, who are above all honest.”

The candidates for Lara’s job include former CONADE president and 1984 Olympic race-walk champion Raul Gonzalez and two-time Olympic marathoner Rodolfo Gomez, who was once Silva’s coach.

The candidates have until Thursday to present their plans for FMA to members of the electoral assembly.

kevin.baxter@latimes.com