Jamaica’s Omar McLeod wins men’s 110m hurdles gold

The prerace favorite, Jamaican Omar McLeod on Tuesday won Olympic gold in the men’s 100meter hurdles Tuesday, with a time of 13.05 seconds.

McLeod, the current world indoor champion and the only hurdler to have finished the race below 13 seconds (12.98 in Shanghai) this year, had hoped to become Jamaica’s first Olympic hurdles champion. He finished first place in the men’s 110meter hurdles in both the first round (13.27) and semifinals (13.15).

Cubanborn Spanish hurdler Orlando Ortega, born near Havana 24 years ago, won the silver medal.

Ortega made a small mistake at the start of the race which left him slightly behind, providing an easy win to McLeod, but the Spanish record holder managed to cross the finish line with the time of 13.17 seconds and clinched the silver medal for Spain.

The last time the Spanish athletics delegation won an Olympic medal was 12 years ago in the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics, a silver for Paquillo Fernandez in the men’s 20 km walk.

The European champion, France’s Dimitri Bascou won bronze with 13.24.

Defending champion and worldrecord holder Aries Merritt did not qualify for the Rio Games.