Orlando Ortega dazzles in 2020 with eyes set on Tokyo

September 9, 2020

An unprecedented double in the Spanish indoor track championships in Ourense (60 meters flat and hurdles) and four victories in his four outdoor races, once freed from confinement, draw a dazzling trajectory for Cuban Orlando Ortega in the year of the pandemic.

Last Thursday Ortega, naturalized in Spain and declared best Spanish athlete of 2019, achieved his fourth consecutive international victory in 110 meters hurdles in Marseille. He had previously won in Monaco (with the best world mark of the year, 13.11), five days later in Székesfehérvár (Hungary) and on August 25 in Chorzow (Poland).

His brilliant campaign stops, however, just one week before the Spanish championships, which next weekend will celebrate their centennial with a multi-venue format in Madrid.

"This is how we finish a difficult and short season but at the same time very satisfactory and full of good feelings for next year, with a clear objective, Tokyo 2021," Ortega wrote on Twitter after his last victory.

Reactions in the Spanish athletics world are divided between those who support his decision to skip the nationals, and critics who blame him for lack of commitment to Spanish athletics just when, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, it most needs big names to keep afloat.

"It won't be possible this year, I would have loved to, truthfully, but next year is very important for my athletic career," was Orlando's response to those asking him for explanations.

The hurdler, born 29 years ago in Artemisa (Cuba) and naturalized Spanish in 2015, knows that he is at the decisive moment of his career, in full maturity as an athlete, and has set out to meticulously prepare his new assault on the Olympic podium. At Rio 2016 he achieved the silver medal, now he wants the gold.