A triple jump legend died on Monday in Sydney (Australia) at the age of 76. This is Georgian athlete Viktor Saneiev announced the European Athletics Federation. The Georgian had won three consecutive Olympic titles in the triple jump and broke the world record for the specialty three times. Born in Sukhumi, he grew up in Georgia on the shores of the Black Sea before becoming one of the best Soviet athletes in long and triple jump. He will specialize in the latter discipline to prepare for the 1968 Mexico Games. On this occasion, he takes part in the biggest competition in the history of the triple jump. The Italian Giuseppe Gentile on his first try first breaks the world record for the event with 17.22 m. Then, Viktor Saneiev answered him by improving the mark by one centimeter for a new record at 17.23 m. Then it was the turn of the Brazilian Nelson Prudencio to break the world record with 17.27 m before Viktor Saneiev projected himself to 17.39 m on his last try and set the fourth world record of the day.
The Georgian retained his Olympic title at the Munich Games in 1972 then in Montreal in 1976 before winning the silver medal at the Moscow Games in 1980. In addition to his Olympic triumphs, between 1969 and 1977 he collected eight European championship titles. including six indoors. The World Athletics Championships only saw the light of day in 1983. After the disappearance of the USSR in the early 1990s, Viktor Saneiev emigrated to Australia where he became an athletics trainer.