Cuba Hurdles Star Dayron Robles Retires
HAVANA TIMES – Olympic 110 metres hurdles champion and former world record holder Dayron Robles of Cuba is ending his career in the wake of a series of injuries, DPA news reported on Thursday.
The report said that Robles, 26, has asked no longer to be part of the nation’s national team.
“(He) does not want to continue competing. We tried to convince him, but he persisted and is currently not part of our team,” the paper quoted new Cuban athletics commissioner Jorge Luis Sanchez as saying.
Robles won Olympic gold in 2008 and the same year bettered the world record to 12.87 seconds, now raised by American Aries Merritt to 12.80.
But he has suffered since them, quitting injured in the semi-finals of the 2009 world championships, was disqualified after originally winning the final at the 2011 worlds, and limped out of the 2012 Olympic final with another injury.
In a recent interview with Associated Press,Robles trainer, Santiago Antunas said, “Dayron is very upset. He doesn’t see himself getting help, and it’s not an economic issue or anything like that, but a human problem, we’re talking about assistance as a person. Nobody (among the sports officials) talks to him, no one says anything, no one comes to visit him, they don’t treat him like a person, like an athlete. But I don’t want to say anything else.”
Smart move. He could earn more than a million dollars this year in Europe. As a ‘retired’ Cuban athlete, he should be permitted to leave Cuba. I look forward to seeing him in a three-way match-up between China’s liu Xiang and the US and world recordholder Aries Merritt this fall.