28. November 2024  
Las Palmas  
GG

Gran Canaria's BLUME-FESTIVAL maker Cornelio Ortega Martinez passed away

Cornelio Ortega MARTINEZ *1948 - 2024

Shortly before the 62nd edition of the BLUME Festival, the president of the GIMNASIO LAS PALMAS sports club, Cornelio Ortega MARTINEZ, passed away at the age of 76. The commendable sports teacher was an irreplaceable organiser of this unique popular sports event until the very end, having been an active gymnast when it was founded in 1960 and later becoming an almost trusted assistant and man of practice alongside the legendary Canarian gymnastics father Jesus Telo Nuñez, who founded the festival and named it after the Spanish folk hero Joaquín BLUME, who died in an accident ...:

The experienced gymnastics instructor Cornelio with contactors of all ages ...

++ In his 57 years as an active sports teacher and coach, Cornelio Ortega MARTINEZ has inspired, coached and trained over 3,000 girls, boys, young people and adults on the Canary Islands - especially at the GIMNASIO LAS PALMAS club - in a wide variety of gymnastics disciplines!
And to the now thousands of international guests of the more than six decades of BLUME festival history, this small and modest man always appeared as the eager coordinator of all festival processes: Cornelio organised everything, helped himself and made even the most difficult problems work ...:

++ Born on 11 April 1948 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Cornelio had been an active member of the BLUME-OK GRAN CANARIA for 55 years since its beginnings in 1960, and had himself contributed great experience as an active competitive gymnast at the Gimnasio Las Palmas club, founded in 1959.
In 2010, he took over the presidency of the Club Deportivo GIMNASIO LAS PALMAS (14 years) and since 2017 has also acted as Vice President of the Organising Committee alongside the current President Jesus Telo Rodriguez.

++ Cornelio MARTINEZ also worked for 13 years (from 1971 to 1983) as a judge for men's and women's artistic gymnastics, led the Canary Islands delegation at gymnastics world championships in Portugal, Holland and Germany, for example, and was head of the Canary Islands delegation at various national festivals in Denmark, Sweden and Germany.

Together with Josefa Rodríguez Darías (widow of Jesús Telo Núñez), the now deceased widow of the founder of the Blume Festival, he trained the first Canarian Olympian, the gymnast Merche Vernetta, who took part in the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal and won a bronze medal at the 1971 Mediterranean Games in Izmir (Turkey).

The pair also coached the first Spanish champions from the Canary Islands archipelago, Merche Vernetta, Loli Navarro, Ana Rojas Fariñas, Eli Herrera and Ana Belén Quintana, who took part in the 1974 World Gymnastics Championships in Varna (BUL).

 


<< Since 2006, Cornelio Ortega MARTINEZ was also a member of the jury for the ‘BEST SPORTSMAN OF GRAN CANARIA “JESUS TELO” competition, named after its founder.
Now, far too soon, this man has closed his eyes forever for all those who knew him.
His legacy lives on in the honourable memory of all his protégés and gymnastics friends!
+ Jesus Telo Rodriguez
  red .Eckhard W. Herholz
(c) gymmedia

... see also ► IN HONOURING MEMORY