Niurka Montalvo

Medal record
Women's athletics
Competitor for  Cuba
World Championships
Silver	1995 Gothenburg	Long jump
Pan American Games
Gold	1995 Mar de Plata	Long jump
Silver	1995 Mar de Plata	Triple jump
Central American and Caribbean Games
Gold	1990 Mexico City	Long jump
Gold	1993 Ponce	Long jump
Gold	1993 Ponce	Triple jump
Competitor for  Spain
World Championships
Gold	1999 Seville	Long jump
Bronze	2001 Edmonton	Long jump
Mediterranean Games
Silver	2005 Almería	Long jump

This name uses Spanish naming customs; the first or paternal family name is Montalvo and the second or maternal family name is Amaro.

Niurka Montalvo Amaro (born June 4, 1968 in Havana) is a former Cuban and Spanish athlete who specialised in the long jump and triple jump events. Her greatest achievement came in 1999, when she became world champion with a personal best jump of 7.06 metres. She is now the autonomous secretary of sport for the Autonomous government of Valencia.

Career

Early life

She began her international career with a medal at the 1986 Pan American Junior Championships, taking the bronze in the long jump.^[1] Senior medals soon followed: at the Central American and Caribbean Championships she won the long jump gold at the 1987 edition, and another gold came at the 1990 Central American and Caribbean Games.

Her first appearance at global level came at the 1991 IAAF World Indoor Championships, where she finished fifth in the long jump. She demonstrated further skills when she scored a double gold in the long jump and triple jump events at both the 1993 Central American and Caribbean Championships in Athletics and the 1993 Central American and Caribbean Games. That year she went on to become the Summer Universiade champion in the triple jump and just missed out on the medals with a fourth place finish at the 1993 World Championships in Athletics. She represented America at the 1994 IAAF World Cup and won the long jump silver behind Inessa Kravets with a best mark of 6.70 m.^[2]

The 1995 season was a breakthrough for Montalvo as she won triple jump silver and long jump at the 1995 Pan American Games before going on to win her first world medal – a jump of 6.86 m brought her a silver medal behind Fiona May in the long jump final at the 1995 World Championships in Athletics. She had mixed fortunes in triple jump that year, finishing sixth at the 1995 IAAF World Indoor Championships, but fifteenth in the qualifiers of the outdoor championships.

The few years following her world silver she focused solely on the long jump, but to limited success: she failed to make it out of the qualifying round at either the 1996 Summer Olympics or the 1997 IAAF World Indoor Championships and a fifth place at the 1998 IAAF Grand Prix Final was a modest highlight to a year.

Transfer to Spain

In 1999 she acquired Spanish citizenship by marriage, something which stirred a great amount of controversy. The move brought renewed efforts on the world stage as she became the world champion in the long jump with a gold medal at the 1999 World Championships in Athletics. The Cuban Athletics Federation blocked her participation in the 2000 Summer Olympics, and in addition, she was reportedly included on a list of possible assassination targets for ETA.^[3]

Montalvo refused to let this disrupt her athletics career and she won a series of bronze medals after this, starting with the 2000 IAAF Grand Prix Final and then at the 2001 IAAF World Indoor Championships and the 2001 World Championships in Athletics. More medals came at regional competitions, with a gold at the 2004 Ibero-American Championships and a silver behind her 1995 World Championships adversary, Fiona May, at the 2005 Mediterranean Games.

She finished seventh in the long jump final at the 2006 European Athletics Championships in Gothenburg at the age of 38.

Major achievements

Long jump unless noted.

• 2004 Ibero-American Championships - gold medal
• 2001 World Championships - bronze medal
• 2001 World Indoor Championships - bronze medal
• 1999 World Championships - gold medal
• 1995 World Championships - silver medal
• 1995 Pan American Games - gold medal
• 1995 Pan American Games - silver medal (triple jump)
• 1993 World Championships - fourth place (triple jump)
• 1993 Central American and Caribbean Games - gold medal
• 1993 Central American and Caribbean Games - gold medal (triple jump)
• 1993 Central American and Caribbean Championships - gold medal
• 1993 Central American and Caribbean Championships - gold medal (triple jump)
• 1990 Central American and Caribbean Games - gold medal
• 1987 Central American and Caribbean Championships - gold medal

Personal bests

• 100 metres hurdles - 13.57 (1990)
• Long jump - 7.06 (1999)
• Triple jump - 14.60 (1994)

References

1. ^ Pan American Junior Championships. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2010-03-16.
2. ^ IAAF World Cup. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2010-03-16.
3. ^ Turnbull, Simon (2001-09-30). Long jumper in hit-list shock. The Independent. Retrieved on 2010-03-16.

External links

• IAAF profile for Niurka Montalvo

Persondata
Name	Montalvo, Niurka
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1968-06-04
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death