Personalities of our network of routes: Mariano Haro

Spanish Champion in Athletics in different categories on a total of 27 occasions, he was later mayor of Becerril de Campos, member of our network of routes

To talk about Mariano Haro is to talk about the history of Spanish athletics. A phrase of his that sums up who we are talking about is already legendary: «I used to run and that was my task, to run and run faster than the others».

Born in Becerril de Campos (Palencia) in 1940, at the age of thirteen he left school and started working with his father, who was a bricklayer; at the same time he felt more and more attracted to the world of athletics.

Born and raised in a land of cold winters and hot, dry summers, the man known as «The Lion of Becerril» acquired a power that made him resistant to extreme conditions. This was also helped by the fact that he ran all the way to the provincial capital, Palencia, sixteen kilometres away.

The result was a prodigious athlete whose track record is full of Spanish records – up to 27 – in different categories: cross country, 10,000m, 5,000m, 3,000m steeplechase and long-distance. Not forgetting other titles such as European cross country team champion and several participations in the European and World Championships and in the Montreal Olympic Games in 1976, where he achieved a creditable sixth place.

After leaving sport, he became interested in the world of politics, and in 1979 he became mayor of Becerril de Campos, a position he held until 2003.

In 2019 he suffered a slight stroke from which he made a full recovery.

A legend of Spanish athletics and, above all, a character of our network of routes. And if you want to know more about him, we recommend you to watch this report of Conexión Vintage (Teledeporte, in Spanish):