Dayron Robles

Since winning a silver medal at the 2004 World Junior Championships, Dayron Robles has catapulted himself to the forefront of high hurdling, making himself medal favourite for the Beijing Olympics.

Robles began competing in track and field at the age of 10 and, though he preferred the high jump, his proficiency for hurdling was evident early on. From age 14 on, Robles focused solely on the hurdles. That decision seemed wise following Robles’ victory at the National Youth Games, which earned him a spot on Cuba’s national junior team in 2002. In his first competition representing Cuba, Robles finished fourth at the World Youth Championships in 2003, and followed that up with a silver-medal performance at the 2004 World Junior Championships. Robles last year as a junior was no less decorated, winning the Pan American Junior Games title, setting a Caribbean-Central American record in the process.

Robles wasted no time making his presence known on the senior circuit. Despite no previous indoor track experience, he earned a silver medal at the 2006 World Indoor Championships over 60m hurdles, and proved to be a consistent threat on the professional outdoor circuit. He ended his first year as a senior on high note in setting a personal best of 13.00sec at the World Athletics Final, and in winning the bronze medal at the IAAF World Cup the following week.

Robles has wasted no time in making his presence known on the senior circuit. In his first indoor competition, he took the silver medal at the 2006 World Indoor Championships, and later that summer Robles took third at the IAAF World Cup behind two 110m hurdles Olympic gold medalists (Allen Johnson and Liu Xiang). Despite winning the Pan American title in 2007 and lowering his personal best to 12.92, Robles was disappointed with his fourth place finish at the World Championships in Osaka. Given how Robles bounced back following his runner-up performance at World Juniors four years ago, it seems likely that the Cuban record holder will use his setback from 2007 as motivation to put himself on the top of the medal stand in Beijing this summer.