Geiner Alonso Mosquera Becerra (born January 8, 1984, in

Chigorodó Chigorodó () is a town and municipality in Antioquia Department, Colombia. Residents * Jaime Castañeda, cyclist Climate Chigorodó has a tropical rainforest climate A tropical rainforest climate, humid tropical climate or equatorial clim ...

, Antioquia) is a Colombian sprinter, who specialized in the

400 metres The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics (sport), athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor runn ...

. He won a gold medal at the 2008 Ibero-American Championships, with a time of 46.63 seconds.

Playing career

Mosquera represented

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, where he competed for the men's 400 metres. He ran in the fifth heat against seven other athletes, including Belgium's

Jonathan Borlée Jonathan Borlée (; born 22 February 1988) is a Belgian sprinter, who specializes in the 400 metres. He is a member of the Borlée family. He qualified for the finals of the 400 metres at the 2012 Summer Olympics. He was a semi-finalist at ...

and United States'

LaShawn Merritt LaShawn Merritt (born June 27, 1986) is an American track and field athlete who competes in sprinting events, specializing in the 400 metres. He is a former Olympic champion over the distance and his personal best of 43.65 seconds makes him th ...

, both of whom were heavy favorites in this event. He finished the race in seventh place by forty-four hundredths of a second (0.44) behind Grenada's

Alleyne Francique Alleyne Jeremy Francique (born June 7, 1976) is a retired Grenadian athlete who specialized in 400 metres, his personal best being 44.47 seconds set in 2004. He is the 400m two time world indoor champion in 2004 and 2006. He won his first wor ...

, with a time of 46.59 seconds. Mosquera, however, failed to advance into the semi-finals, as he placed forty-fifth overall, and was ranked farther below three mandatory slots for the next round.

References

External links

*
NBC Olympics Profile
Colombian male sprinters Living people Olympic athletes for Colombia Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from Antioquia Department 1984 births South American Games silver medalists for Colombia South American Games medalists in athletics Competitors at the 2006 South American Games 21st-century Colombian people {{Colombia-athletics-bio-stub