Robles rediscovers mojo, targets London worlds
HAVANA: Dayron Robles insists he has refound his mojo after two injury-hit seasons, the 2008 Olympic high hurdles gold medallist now aiming to bag a trip to August’s world championships in London.
Robles was back in action in Havana last week, clocking 13.66sec over the 110m hurdles, some way of f the 13.4 8sec minimum required for selection for the Cuban team that will travel to the British capital in the summer.
“I’m savouring each step, each movement, each training session and this pleasure can help me get into good shape and realise many things,” said Robles, with a June 3 outing in Marseille next in his crosshairs.
But the bespectacled athlete said he remains realistic, all the time striving to avoid his “main enemy”, injury.
Now 30, Robles missed the Rio Olympics injured, and famously pulled up with a thigh injury in the final of the London Games in 2012, which he describes as the “worst memory” of his career.
Working alongside a younger generation of hurdlers, Yordan O’Farrill and Roger Valentin Iribarne, Robles maintains he has refound his mojo.
“I’m motivated. The new generation are pushing me to work, in the gym, on the grass, on the track,” he said.
Robles was suspended between 2013-15 by the Cuban federation after conflict started over what he says was his sidelining by officials, leading him into a shortlived retirement and a refused request to run again for Monaco athletics club.
But he remains faithful to his native island, a place he has never wanted to quit, unlike Portugal-based triple jumper Pedro Pichardo and Olympic hurdles silver medallist Orlando Ortega, who competes for Spain.
Robles said “these changes should not exist ( but) everyone makes their own choices”.
The Cuban state pays Robles a stipend but the hurdler has invested in the hotel business on the back of the opening up of the country, launching with his family lodgings where tourists stay with a Cuban family.