Niurka Montalvo

Niurka Montalvo, 1999

Niurka Montalvo ( Niurka Montalvo Amaro ; born June 4, 1968 in Havana ) is a Spanish athlete of Cuban origin.

She is 1.72 m tall and weighs 57 kg.

Cuba

Niurka Montalvo was at the World Indoor Championships in 1991 with 6.68 m fifth in the long jump . In 1993 at the Open Air World Championships she was fourth with 14.22 m in the first triple jump , just one centimeter behind third-placed Bulgarian Iva Pranscheva .

At the 1995 World Indoor Championships , Montalvo was sixth in the triple jump with 14.04 m. In the summer of the same year she was second in the long jump at the World Championships with 6.86 m. She was twelve centimeters behind the Italian Fiona May . At the 1996 Olympic Games , she was 18th in the qualification in the long jump and could not jump into the preliminary fight.

Niurka Montalvo improved the Cuban record in the long jump three times from 1990 to 1993 and four times the Cuban record in the triple jump from 1992 to 1994. In 1998 she set two more records in the long jump, but these were no longer recognized by the Cuban Association because Niurka Montalvo was naturalizing in Spain.

Spain

On January 26, 1998, Niurka Montalvo married a Spaniard and applied for Spanish citizenship. She officially became Spanish on May 5, 1999. Three months later, the 1999 World Championships took place in Seville . There Fiona May led with 6.94 m after the first five attempts. Niurka Montalvo's last attempt was measured at 7.06 m, which meant a new Spanish record. However, the Italian team protested because Montalvo had stepped up. The protest was rejected and the Spanish audience celebrated the first world title for Spain at these world championships.

While the IAAF, the World Athletics Federation, only requires citizenship as a starting requirement for entry authorization at World Championships, the International Olympic Committee sets other requirements. If the citizenship has not yet existed for three years, the country of origin must also agree to a start at the Olympic Games. Since the Cuban federation refused this approval, Niurka Montalvo was not allowed to participate in the 2000 Olympic Games .

2001 Niurka Montalvo won bronze in both the indoor world championships and at the outdoor world championships . Their width was 6.88 m in both cases, the width being achieved outdoors with a strong tail wind.

At the 2004 Olympic Games , Niurka Montalvo failed to make a valid jump in qualification. In 2006 at the European Championships , Montalvo was seventh again with 6.50 m.

Top performances

• Long jump 7.06 m (1999)
• Triple jump 14.60 m (1994)

literature

• Peter Matthews (Ed.): Athletics 2003. SportsBooks, Cheltenham 2003, ISBN 1-899807-16-0 .

Web links

• Niurka Montalvo in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Niurka Montalvo in the database of World Athletics (English)