Luciano Sušanj

Luciano Sušanj ( born November 10, 1948 in Rijeka ) is a former Croatian track and field athlete, who competed for Yugoslavia. The 1.85 m wide and its competition time 75kg Sušanj 1974 European champion in the 800 -meter run.

His first international placement he reached at the European Indoor Games 1969 in Belgrade, the Yugoslav 4x2 - rounds - season he was fourth. In the Balkans games he won in 1969 and 1971, the 400 -meter run. In 1973, he won the title at the European Indoor Championships in Rotterdam in 46.38 seconds.

Then he switched to the 800 - meter track. From 1973 to 1976 he won four times in a row at the Balkan Championships. At the European Indoor Championships 1974 in Gothenburg, he won in 1:48,07 minutes. In the summer at the European Championships in Rome he won his heat but was in the semifinals only second behind the 18- year-old Brit Steve Ovett. In the final Sušanj sparked about 220 meters before the finish from the row the rest of the runners and sprinted to the finish, in 1:44,07 minutes he ran and won the European Championship record with over one and a half seconds ahead of Ovett.

At the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal traveled Sušanj as one of the favorites. In the final, but he could not follow the world record pace of Cuban Alberto Juantorena and was in 1:45,75 seconds in sixth, a place behind Ovett.

2001 Sušanj was elected president of the Croatian Association of Athletics Federations. With his winning time of 1974 he was also on 31 December 2006 Croatian Landesrekordler.