WHO HE IS TODAY
A sprinter-hurdler from the border, shaped by the Nayarit track. Seventeen years old, three seasons in, and already racing the clock instead of the field.
TRACK & FIELD · 400M HURDLES · OPEN 400M
LEONARDO FERNANDEZ
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EVERY LANE HOLDS A STORY.
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THE ATHLETE
WHO HE IS TODAY
A 400m hurdler from Tijuana, built in Bahía de Banderas. One event, one obsession: getting to the next barrier faster.
01/ 07
Leonardo Fernández Rojas is a 17-year-old Mexican track and field athlete from Tijuana, Baja California, now based in Bahía de Banderas, Nayarit. He runs the 400m hurdles for Lion Forge under coach Pablo Delgadillo Cortez, with the open 400m as his second event. Three seasons into the sport, he already owns a regional title and a sub-57 personal best — and he is only beginning to close the gap to the national level.
SPECIALTY
400m hurdles — a race of stride patterns, rhythm and speed endurance. The open 400m sharpens the flat speed that makes the last three barriers possible.
COMPETITION CATEGORY
Under-20 (Sub-20) for the 2027 CONADE cycle. Federated through FMMAA and competing for Nayarit, with the 400m hurdles as his primary path to the national stage.
THE PROOF
Regional champion in the 400m hurdles (2026, 56.91 PB), with multiple state and regional podium finishes behind him. The numbers are moving in one direction.
THE ATHLETE
- TEAM
- LION FORGE
- COACH
- PABLO DELGADILLO CORTEZ
- CATEGORY
- U20 · 400M HURDLES
- FEDERATION
- FMMAA · MÉXICO
PERSONAL BESTS
- 400M HURDLES
- 56.91
- 400M
- 51.36
- 200M
- 23.50
YOU NEVER CHASE MEDALS. YOU CHASE THE CLOCK.
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BEGINNINGS
BEFORE THE RESULTS
The record book starts at a finish line. This is what happened before it.
Before the podiums, before the times, there was a boy from Tijuana who liked the feeling of running. The track gave that feeling a name, a lane, and somewhere to go.
THE FIRST START
I found athletics the way most kids do: a school race, a pair of borrowed spikes, and a finish line that suddenly felt like the most important place in the world. What started as a way to burn energy became the thing I planned my week around. When my family settled in Bahía de Banderas, the track became a second home.
THE PEOPLE WHO STAYED
My family drove me to sessions before I could drive myself. My coach, Pablo Delgadillo Cortez, taught me that talent is only the entry fee. My Lion Forge teammates made the hardest sessions feel like somewhere worth being.
THE FIRST RACES
The first competitions were less about medals than about learning: how to warm up, how to stand in the call room, how to lose and come back the next week. Then the podium arrived — second at Copa Tijuana 2025, third at Estatal Tepic 2025 — and the work stopped being a theory.
A MEMORY THAT STAYS
The race I remember is not the one I won. It is an early one where I hit the last hurdle, lost my rhythm, and still finished. It taught me something a clean win could not: the finish line does not care how you got there, only that you kept going.
“I didn’t fall in love with the finish line. I fell in love with how it felt to get there.”
SWEAT IS THE ONLY SHORTCUT.
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ATHLETIC JOURNEY
THE SEASONS
From first sessions to a regional title — the seasons, the meets, and the marks that built the athlete.
PERSONAL BESTS
- 400M HURDLES
- 56.91
- OPEN 400M
- 51.36
- 200M
- 23.50
2024
THE FOUNDATION
First sessions with coach Pablo Delgadillo Cortez and Lion Forge. Learning the event from zero: blocks, stride pattern, and the rhythm that makes a 400m hurdler.
- FIRST CLUB
- LION FORGE
- COACH
- PABLO DELGADILLO CORTEZ
- FOCUS
- 400M HURDLES
2025
THE BREAKTHROUGH
The first full season of racing. Podiums in Tijuana and Tepic, and a 400m hurdles mark that finally dipped under 58 seconds away from home.
- COPA TIJUANA
- 400M · 52.10 · 2ND
- ESTATAL TEPIC
- 400M · 52.85 · 3RD
- GUANAJUATO
- 400M H · 57.94 · 2ND
2026
THE REGIONAL TITLE
A personal best and the win at Copa Tepic, then second at Regional Tepic. The season the athlete became a contender.
- COPA TEPIC
- 400M H · 56.91 · 1ST
- REGIONAL TEPIC
- 400M H · 57.30 · 2ND
COMPLETE RECORD 06 RESULTS · 2025–2026
2026REGIONAL TEPIC400M H57.302
2026COPA TEPIC400M H56.911
2025COPA TIJUANA400M52.102
2025ESTATAL TEPIC400M52.853
2025GUANAJUATO400M H57.942
2025COPA JALISCO400M H58.404
OFFICIAL PROFILE ON WORLD ATHLETICS
RECORDS FALL QUIETLY, ON ORDINARY MORNINGS.
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GOALS
THE NEXT HURDLE
Where I am, where I am going, and what stands between me and the national stage.
Three seasons in, I am no longer chasing a first result. I am chasing a standard. The next step is simple to say and hard to earn: a place at the 2027 CONADE national games.
Lion Forge is the team around me — coach Pablo Delgadillo Cortez, my training group, and the people who keep the plan honest. The goal is not just to arrive in 2027. It is to arrive ready to run faster than the field.
THE TEAM
LION FORGE
THE TARGET
CONADE NATIONALS
Mexico’s annual national games for young athletes. The 2027 final stage runs 22 April – 4 June, with athletics hosted in Tamaulipas. Qualification begins at state level in January–February and passes through the regional stage in March.
- STATE STAGE
- JAN – FEB 2027
- REGIONAL STAGE
- BY MARCH 2027
- NATIONAL FINAL
- TAMAULIPAS
THE CHALLENGES
FASTER THAN THE FIELD
Lower the 56.91 — stronger first barrier, better speed endurance, and the confidence to run the race from the front.
PERFECT THE RHYTHM
Refine the hurdle technique until the barriers stop being obstacles: stride pattern, trail-leg snap, and a cleaner line over every hurdle.
UPCOMING COMPETITIONS
INTERCLUB ATHLETIC CHAMPIONSHIP
ATHLETIC MEETING
THUNDER FESTIVAL
WINTER CUP
EVERY STRIDE CARRIES MORE THAN MY NAME.
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LIFE AS AN ATHLETE
THE WORK NOBODY SEES
Six mornings a week on the track: acceleration, hurdle rhythm, plyometrics, and the long hours of mobility nobody claps for. The gallery is the work; the rest is how the work fits into a life.
LIFE OUTSIDE THE SPLITS
The routine, the race-week ritual, and the reasons that keep the spikes by the door.
TRAINING ROUTINE
Mobility and activation, acceleration, hurdle rhythm, plyometrics, speed endurance, then recovery. Six training days a week, planned around school — the session changes, the standard does not.
COMPETITION PREP
The week before a meet strips everything back: race plan, stride pattern, kit check, sleep. Race day is a warm-up I could run with my eyes closed; the race itself is the only unknown.
WHAT DRIVES ME
The clock is the most honest opponent I have. Every session is a chance to be faster than the version of me that showed up yesterday.
BALANCE
Track is a big part of my life, not the whole of it. Family, school, and rest keep me grounded — and a rested athlete is a faster athlete.