Robles to make outdoor debut in Guadeloupe - IAAF
Posted 30 April 2011 - 04:54 PM
Havana, Cuba - World 100m Hurdles record holder Dayron Robles will make his outdoor debut at the 6th Baie-Mahault Grand Prix in Guadeloupe, the French Caribbean, on 7 May.
The 2008 Olympic 110m Hurdles champion trains three hours a day from Monday to Saturday at Havana’s Estadio Panamericano with two main goals this year: the gold medal at the World Championships in Daegu and retaining his Pan American Games title in Guadalajara, Mexico.
“I am physically fine, combining technical and strength workouts, progressively entering the pre-competitive stage," said Robles, whose 2010 injury was cut short due to injury. "No pain in my ankles or my lumbar spine. I have been strengthening the latter rigorously.”
His Guadeloupe debut will be followed by the Ponce Grand Prix in Puerto Rico on 14 May and the Ostrava Golden Spike World Challenge meeting on May 28. In the Czech city, he broke the World record with 12.87 in June 2008.
“I will return home and continue tuning my shape until July, when I will join the European circuit in the lead up to the World Champs,” he added.
Robles’ last 110m race was his 2010 best (13.01) in Lausanne on 8 July. He had to end his 2011 indoor season after two races due to injury.
His coach Santiago Antúnez, a past winner of the IAAF Coach Award, is assessing the number of meetings this year, based on a thorough study combined with strength workouts, supervised by his physician Richard Pérez, a physiotherapist and another sports physician.
“If everything goes according to plan, he will be ready to take the great challenges, face his main rivals and produce excellent results,” he concluded.
In Guadeloupe, the main opposition will come from twice World Championships bronze medallist and 2008 Olympic runner-up David Payne of the US and Jamaica’s Olympic finalist Richard Phillips. France’s 2010 World Junior champion Pascal Martinot Lagarde is also confirmed.
Although the entire field has not been released, over a dozen World and Olympic medallists have already been secured for the sixth edition of meeting, including Beijing Olympic champions Irving Saladino (Long Jump) and Dawn Harper (100m Hurdles), two-time World and 2004 Olympic gold medallist Jeremy Wariner (400m) and Australia’s World Indoor Long Jump champion Fabrice Lapierre.
Another Caribbean star expected to make his season’s debut in his main event is Puerto Rico’s 2009 World Championships 400m Hurdles silver medallist Javier Culson.
Eleven events will be contested. Both men and women will compete in the 400m, 400m Hurdles and Long Jump. Men will also battle in 100m, 110m Hurdles and women in 200m, 100m Hurdles and the Shot Put.
In 2010, seven Beijing Olympic champions and 29 world champions from 2005, 2007 and 2009 added prestige to one of the leading Caribbean meetings.
Past 110 champions in Baie-Mahault included Barbados’ 2009 World champion Ryan Brathwaite (13.41) in 2010, and USA’s two-time Olympic runner-up Terrence Trammell (2009) and World and Olympic champion Allen Johnson (13.34) in 2008.
Javier Clavelo Robinson for the IAAF
