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Cuban marathon runner Aguelmis Rojas and his coach have defected in Uruguay.

Rojas, who ran at the 2004 Olympics in Athens and won last year's Havana marathon, and his coach, Rafael Diaz, went missing on Tuesday, one day before they were due to return home.

Congressman Jaime Trobo, a member of the right-of-centre National Party, said a companion of the pair phoned him on Tuesday to tell him they wanted to remain in Uruguay.

"They told me that they were well, with people they trust and that they were going to stay," Trobo told Reuters.

"They wanted to have another choice, another alternative and to develop their lives in freedom."

Rojas, 30, who also runs the 10,000 metres, had been in the country since January 16 and had taken part in a number of races.

"They left with all their luggage and turned off their cellular telephones. The defection is confirmed," Cuban-born sports coach Adalberto Cuevas, who lives in Uruguay, told El Observador newspaper.

The Uruguayan government has not yet said what action it will take. Cuban defections in Uruguay have been rare.

Reuters