Orlando Ortega is back and that’s the best possible news. The Spanish-Cuban hurdler, who missed the Tokyo Games due to a late hamstring injury while training in Japan for the competition, he returned to the tartan half a year later at the Orlen Cup in Lodz (Poland).
Orlando was sixth in the final with a time of 7.76far from the 7.45 that he has as a personal best, although that record dates back to 2015. The Olympic runner-up in Rio was third in his semifinal with a time of 7.87, to improve somewhat in the final but not enough to approach the positions head
The victory went to the Brazilian Rafael Pereira with a time of 7.59. It should be remembered that Ortega does not usually lavish himself on the indoor track because the 60 hurdles is not a test that suits his conditions every time we talk regarding an athlete with exquisite technique but who doesn’t exactly have an explosive start.
It remains to be seen what the world bronze roadmap is in Doha 2019, but of course it will have to improve substantially if it wants to represent Spain in the Indoor World Cup in Belgrade since Quique Llopis (7.59) and Asier Martnez (7.61), Olympic finalist in Tokyo, are already among the best in the event worldwide.
JACOBS AND SWOBODA FLY IN 60M
The italiano Marcell Jacobs, current Olympic champion of the 100 meters, won the final of the 60 meter dash with a time of 6.49 seconds, just 2 hundredths of his Italian record, the 6.47 seconds with which he proclaimed European champion last year on the indoor track, and which allows him to rise to third place in the world ranking of the year, only surpassed by the young Bahamian Terrence Jones, who ran last January 15 in a time of 6.45 and the American Micah Williams who has a record of 6.48 seconds. The Italian was 13 hundredths ahead of the American Mike Rodgers, second with a time of 6.62.
The polace Ewa Swoboda, European indoor champion in 2019, won the final of the 60 sprint with a time of 7.00 seconds, the best world record of the year. No one had managed to run in 7.00 seconds since in 2016 the Dutch Dafne Schippers and the American Barbara Pierre stopped the clock in exactly seven seconds