HAVANA, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Cuba's 110 meters hurdler Orlando Ortega, sixth in the London Olympic Games, has defected from the Cuban national team during the recently concluded World Athletics Championships in Moscow, the Cuban Athletics Federation confirmed here Wednesday.
"Attitudes like his have nothing to do with the principles that inspire us, and will always be repudiated by those who recognize the indispensable loyalty, as a component for a genuinely popular sport," the federation said in an official press release published by the sports news website JIT.
Ortega, 22, who participated in the Moscow meet after the Cuban Federation lifted on July 23 a six-month sanction for disciplinary disqualification imposed on him last June and was considered the successor of his compatriot and former world record holder Dayron Robles, was surprisingly eliminated in the first round of the discipline.
Ortega, after being eliminated in the first round on Aug. 11, expressed his disappointment, saying "I've been stopped for two months without training. I'm not happy, I feel very bad. Being sanctioned affected me. It was a very unfair punishment."
Cuba finished at the World Championships in Moscow with only a silver, won in the last competition day by triple jumper Pedro Pichardo, and two bronze medals.