FILE PHOTO: Athletics – World Athletics Championships – Doha 2019 – Men’s 110 Metres Hurdles Final – Khalifa International Stadium, Doha, Qatar – October 2, 2019 Spain’s Orlando Ortega reacts after the final REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
October 3, 2019
DOHA (Reuters) – Spain’s Orlando Ortega has been awarded a bronze medal in the 110 meters hurdles after organizers agreed he was obstructed when Jamaican Omar McLeod fell in the next lane on Wednesday.
Ortega, on course for a third-place finish at the time, came fifth and Frenchman Pascal Martinot-Lagarge took bronze which the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) said he would keep. American Grant Holloway won the race.
“The Jury of Appeal reconsidered the case and in view of the obstruction by athlete Omar McLeod, which impeded the Spanish Athlete, the jury accepted the appeal and directed that Spanish athlete Orlando Ortega also be awarded a bronze medal,” the IAAF said in a statement.
Defending champion McLeod said after the race that he was responsible for obstructing Ortega and apologized.
Spain asked for the race to be re-run or for Ortega to be allowed to compete alone or “be awarded the medal corresponding to his position at the time of the obstruction.”
(Reporting by Brian Homewood; Editing by Ken Ferris)
