Career
His personal best for the event is 8:20.87 minutes
Born in San Cristóbal, Táchira, he first established himself on the continental youth scene. His first international outing came at the 2002 South American Youth Championships in Athletics, where he came fourth in the boy"s 2000 metres steeplechase race. Moving up to the junior under-20 ranks, he ran at the 2005 South American Junior Championships in Athletics.
He represented Venezuelan on the global stage at the 2006 World Junior Championships in Athletics, but did not progress beyond the steeplechase heats.
In November 2006, he was the runner-up at the 2006 South American Games (again to Bazán) and ran a national junior record time of 8:50.88 minutes. He was also the runner-up at the 2007 ALBA Games event.
He focused on longer distances in 2008, coming seventh in the South American Cross Country Championships and winning the national title over 5000 metres. At the 2008 Ibero-American Championships in Athletics he came fifth in his specialist steeplechase event.
His focus returned to steeplechasing in the 2009 season.
He came second at the 2009 ALBA Games, fifth at the World Military Track and Field Championships, then ran a personal best of 8:36.17 minutes at the 2009 South American Championships in Athletics in Lima – finishing just one second behind the host nation"s Mario Bazán who broke the championship record. At the 2011 South American Championships in Athletics, Peña missed out on a steeplechase medal for the first time, coming in fifth place. A month later, he ran a personal best of 8:34.90 minutes at the 2011 Military World Games and was eighth in the event final.
1500 m: 3:44.06 minimum – Eagle Rock, 4 May 2013
3000 m: 7:54.42 minimum – Linz, 26 August 2013
5000 m: 13:47.25 minimum – Stanford, 29 March 2013
3000 m steeplechase: 8:20.87 minimum NR – Berlin, 1 September 2013.
