September 21 Birthdays

1911
Juan Carlos Zabala, Argentine long-distance runner. Zabala was the Olympic marathon champion in 1932 (Los Angeles), running 2:33:19. Zabala also set world records at 30,000 meters and 20,000 meters.

1930
Sergei Popov, Soviet Union, long-distance runner. Popov, a three-time Soviet national champion in the marathon (1957, 1958, 1959), set a world record in the marathon of 2:15:17 at the 1958 European Championships in Stockholm. Yes, I know; it's supposed to be called a "world best" and not a "world record." Popov ran 2:19:18.8 to finish fifth in the 1960 (Rome) Olympic Games marathon, the race in which the great Abebe Bikila broke Popov's world record.