Asier Martínez: "Orlando Ortega is not a reference for me. I have treated any other European more"

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His mother,

, was a hurdler and at the age of five he was already at the fences.

With that childhood,

(Zizur Mayor, Navarra, 2000) could no longer want to know anything about the specialty or he could be as he is, like one of those covered in the 110 meter hurdles of the Eugene World Cup that is being played this morning - 02:05 a.m. the semifinals and 04:30 a.m. the final-.

"As a child, maybe it wasn't my passion, but athletics helped me to play, to do something, to move. I got motivated when I was 13 or 14 years old and it started to mean a lot to me," confesses Martínez, who later spent his adolescence watching hurdling races, hurdling races, hurdling races.

Olympic, World, European Games, Diamond meetings, local meetings.

Last year he became the revelation of Spanish athletics by getting into the final of the Games;

him now he wants to be back in the top eight

Who was he looking at in that fanatical adolescence?

I loved speed, I have always idolized sprinters, of course

and also the Frenchman

, who was then the fastest white in history.

Then I specialized in hurdles and

, also French, marked me a lot.

Because my coach is

, raised in France] or whatever, his technique is what I have learned.

I like the model that establishes that you have to respect the fence, prioritize a clean race, give great importance to the hunt. How did the successes of Orlando Ortega influence you? I would say little.

We all saw his final at the Rio Games, his successes in the Diamond League... but for me he is not a benchmark.

Mainly because he does not follow the concepts that I have always worked with, he is from another school.

I haven't dealt with him much outside of competition either.

Due to life circumstances, I have had more dealings with [the British]

or with any other European.

He was sixth in the Tokyo Games, second in the Diamond League in Oslo... Can you see yourself with a medal in this World Cup?

A year and a half ago he was an amateur and saw these competitions light years away.

My development has been abrupt.

I have gone from idolizing my rivals to competing with them and that makes me still not believe it.

For now, my goal is to fight in the semifinals and I will get where I have to go.

I still haven't had time to enjoy all this and I would like to leave here having enjoyed it. I was such an amateur that I lived in Pamplona and went to Bilbao every day to study Politics.

To train, in the time that was left.

Until very recently my priority was studies, not athletics.

Now that has changed

I take everything online and I don't bother with the car.

But that was the reality, I've been a professional for nothing.

Study Politics, don't tell me that you have to separate politics from sports. I'm not saying, no.

I don't believe in professional politics, I don't see it as a job opportunity for me, but I have my ideology and I think that any athlete has to stand out.

It is unrealistic to put the athlete in a bubble, trying to make him unaware of the social injustices, work problems or addictions that are around him.

I'm an athlete, but if my neighbors are evicted, I live the same.

In that contact with reality outside of sport is his gang, the Azpi Crew, from his neighborhood in Pamplona, ​​who put on tremendous revelry after each of their successes. It's part of what he said.

For me it is very positive to live that reality that is foreign to sport, not to lose contact with real life.

There are environments that are not very sporty, but in my opinion that connection is needed outside.

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