ATHLETICS Orlando Ortega focuses on goals for 2022

Orlando Ortega is one of the best Spanish athletes in history. Olympic runner-up at the 2016 Rio Games, bronze at the 2019 World Cup in Qatar and bronze at the 2018 European Championships in Berlin These are the most relevant international achievements of the 30-year-old sprinter, of Cuban origin, a specialist in the 110-meter hurdles. The also winner of two ‘diamonds’ opens its outdoor season today in Nerja and on Saturday it will be at the Ibiza Meeting, tests that Orlando sees “as a good test in order to continue working thinking about the most important competitions of the year”.

Ortega, who missed the Tokyo Games due to injury, has a demanding season ahead of him with three huge X’s on the calendar, as he himself specifies in a press release from the organization: “The main objective we have for this summer season is to take good care of ourselves mentally and physically and the competitions in which we have our sights set on are the World Championships in Eugene, the European Championships in Munich and, of course, my favorite competition: the Diamond League.” The demand is maximum and that is why he does not expect a great result in these initial races: “We are still working with a lot of training volume, so I do not expect a great record but to find good sensations”.

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The hurdler, who studies computer science at UCAM, acknowledges that he has learned a valuable lesson from last season: “It is said that you learn from mistakes and I learned a lot from 2021, but all that was left behind and I only worry about the present enjoying athletics as I did years ago.” Orlando Ortega, who will participate on Saturday morning in Ibiza in a meeting with all the boys and girls who participate in the tests for minors scheduled at the meeting itself, is the first time he has visited the island: “I am very excited because it is the first time I will travel there and I have always heard wonderful things. I am looking forward to arriving not only to compete, but to walk around and discover Ibiza”.

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