Cuba’s Dayron Robles Returns to the Hurdles

By Adrian Romero (Café Fuerte)

Dayron Robles during the announcement of his comeback, in Turin, Italy
Dayron Robles during the announcement of his comeback, in Turin, Italy.

HAVANA TIMES — Dayon Robles, an Olympic gold medalist and former world record holder in the 110 meter hurdles, made official his comeback by announcing his participation at the Memorial Primo Nebiolo XIV, which will be held in the Italian city Turin.

Robles reported his decision to return on his personal blog, in a post dated Italian soil, and then endorsed the event’s official website.

Dayron, who had announced he would retire from competing last year, returns as a guest, but without many expectations.

The Beijing 2008 Olympic champion had announced the end of his career last January. According to his former coach, the decision was due to lack of attention from the Cuban authorities.

Robles, 26, was affected by repeated injuries that prevented him from reaching its highest level in recent years.

The hurdler was unable to defend his Olympic title in the London 2012 Games. After making it to the finals he was forced to abandon the race  after an injury.

Nonetheless, he told reportes in Italy: “I am very happy with the results obtained in London, basically, I never really thought about stopping. I’ve had problems in the femur, but little by little I recovered and now I feel great. This is my first race since October when I started training in Havana, and I’m ready, I’m looking forward to it and I will try to do my best.”

Robles held the world 110 meter hurdles record with a time of 12.87 seconds until Aries Merritt (US) managed seven hundredths of a second faster.

According the event website Robles will compete on June 10th.