MOSCOW, August 21 (R-Sport) - A Cuban sprint hurdler has deserted his country's delegation in Moscow after this month's world athletics championships in the Russian capital, his country's athletics federation appeared to say on Wednesday.
Orlando Ortega, 22, failed to make the final of the 110m hurdles last week but has since reportedly disappeared, in a case the Cuban Athletics Federation appeared to call "deplorable."
"The Cuban Athletics Federation reports that the 110m hurdles runner Orland Ortega has abandoned the island's delegation attending the recently concluded world championships in Moscow," a statement (originally in Spanish) on the deporcuba.com website said.
The site describes itself as a "blog specializing in sports information," and its connection to the athletics federation was not immediately clear.
"The decision to renounce the cause of a country that allowed him to train as an athlete deprives him of the honor of competing in the ranks of a sports movement that is anchored in its values," the statement said.
The Cuban Embassy in Moscow appeared to confirm Ortega's disappearance but refused to elaborate in comments to RIA Novosti.
"You have the information of the FCA," a spokesperson told the state news agency, referring to the federation's acronym. "We can't give you any more information."
Ortega was among 14 Cuban athletes competing in the August 10-18 championships at Luzhniki Stadium. Ortega's best international achievement is a bronze medal in the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara; he made the final of the London 2012 Olympics last year but finished sixth.
His reported disappearance comes two months after his countryman and Beijing 2008 Olympic champion Dayron Robles was banned from representing Cuba for unspecified "problems of discipline and sportsmanship," the federation said.
Ortega himself was suspended in July on similarly vague charges of "serious indiscipline" but the ban was lifted ahead of the Moscow championships.
updated at 12:40 with quotes from Cuban Embassy
