Orlando Ortega

Orlando Ortega
Ortega at the European Championships 2018
nation	Spain
birthday	29th July 1991 (age 29)
place of birth	Artemisa, Cuba
Career
discipline	Hurdles
Best performance	110 m hurdles: 12.94 s
society	CA Vall d'Albaida
National squad	since 2011
status	active
Medal table
Olympic games 0 × 1 × 0 × World championships 0 × 0 × 1 × European championships 0 × 0 × 1 × Pan American Games 0 × 0 × 1 ×
Olympic games silver Rio de Janeiro 2016 110 m hurdles  World championships bronze Doha 2019 110 m hurdles  European championships bronze Berlin 2018 110 m hurdles  Pan American Games bronze Guadalajara 2011 110 m hurdles
last change: October 3, 2019

Orlando Ortega Alejo (* 29. July 1991 in Artemisa ) is a born in Cuba Spanish athlete , who on the hurdles specializes.

Athletic career

Orlando Ortega comes from a sports family. His father Orlando Ortega Hechavarría is a track and field trainer and a former 400 meter hurdle sprinter. His grandmother Cristina Hechavarría was part of the Cuban Olympic team in 1968 as a sprinter and his grandfather, also Orlando Ortega, was a Cuban soccer player. The son followed in these big footsteps by being on the podium at the Cuban Junior Hurdles Championships from 2007 to 2009. In 2007 he was second, in 2008 and 2009 he won the title. In addition, in 2009 he was runner-up in the 200-meter sprint.

Through these achievements he was able to qualify for the 2010 World Athletics Championships , but there he could not finish the competition in the hurdles.

Ortega first drew international attention at the Pan American Games in 2011 when he finished third behind his teammate Dayron Robles and Colombian Paulo Villar .

In 2012 he started training with Santiago Antúnez and became a training colleague of Robles. In May 2012 he was able to beat this for the first time at an event in Havana with a new personal best of 13.09 seconds. During this time he was qualified for the 2012 Olympic Games in London, where he finished sixth.

After the 2013 World Athletics Championships in Moscow, Ortega fled and took Spanish citizenship. The main reason was that Ortega was suspended shortly before the world championships due to internal quarrels with the Cuban federation and was therefore not fully productive at the world championships. The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) then banned Ortega from all international athletics competitions (World Championships and Olympics) for three years until November 2016. Thus, he was not at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing, although he held the world best time with 12.94 s. But his suspension was shortened and he was able to take part in the 2016 Olympic Games , where he finished second. This was the first athletics medal by a Spaniard in 12 years.

He won the bronze medal at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha . In the race, while in silver, he was hindered by falling Omar McLeod and finished fifth. After a protest by the Spanish federation, he was subsequently awarded the split bronze medal.

Web links

Commons : Orlando Ortega  - Collection of Images

• Orlando Ortega in the database of World Athletics (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ [1] Orlando Ortega claims silver for Spain in hurdles
2. ↑ [2] defecting Cuban hurdler Orlando Ortega aims for US move
3. ↑ [3] Orlando Ortega remains Cuban at heart
4. ^ [4] Cuban-born hurdler Ortega targets Olympic medal for Spain
5. ↑ Spanish hurdler gets bronze after falling from rivals. In: spiegel.de. October 3, 2019, accessed October 4, 2019 .