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Medal record
Robles leading the 110 metre hurdles final at the Beijing Olympics
Men’s athletics
Competitor for  Cuba
Olympic Games
Gold	2008 Beijing	110 m hurdles
World Indoor Championships
Gold	2010 Doha	60 m hurdles
Silver	2006 Moscow	60 m hurdles
Panamerican Games
Gold	2007 Rio de Janeiro	110 m hurdles

Dayron Robles (born 19 November 1986 in Guantánamo, Cuba) is a track and field athlete who specialises in the 110 metre hurdles.

He won his first major medal (a silver) in the 60 metres hurdles at the 2006 World Indoor Championships. He finished the 2006 season having improved his outdoor best to 13 seconds and become the Central American and Caribbean Games champion. Pan American gold came the following year in which also set a meet record of 12.92 seconds at the 2007 IAAF World Athletics Final – making him the joint fourth fastest ever.

He reached the pinnacle of his event in 2008 by setting a world record of 12.87 seconds in June at the Golden Spike Ostrava meet,^[1] and winning an Olympic gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in 12.93 seconds. Injury ruled him out for much of 2009, but he returned strongly with a championship record win at the 2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships.

Career

He won his first international medal at the 2004 World Junior Championships in Athletics, taking the silver medal in the 110 m hurdles which was Cuba's only medal of the competition.^[2] At the 2006 World Indoor Championships in Moscow he finished second with a new personal best time (indoor) of 7.46 seconds, a time which he has since improved to 7.33 s, making him the second-fastest ever indoors, behind Colin Jackson.^[3][4]

At the 2008 World Indoor Championships in Valencia he didn't advance from the heats due to fact that he stopped running, thinking that fellow hurdler Liu Xiang had made a false start. This was great disappointment for Robles, who had posted nine of the 11 fastest times of the winter season and was a favorite for winning the gold medal.^[5]

At the Beijing Olympics in 2008, many anticipated a Robles/Liu showdown in the final, but Liu was forced to pull out injured in the opening heat due to tendinitis.^[6] Robles went on to comfortably win the gold medal, posting a time of 12.93 s in the final.^[7]

During the 2009 IAAF World Championships, Dayron Robles was forced out of the competition, not finishing his semi-final because of muscular injury. After recovering from his injury, he entered the 2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships. The 60 metres final was the first time in over two years that Robles had faced Liu and Terrence Trammell in the same race. Robles began the race slowly but his power and technique saw him overhaul Trammell in the second half of the race to finish in 7.34 seconds, the third quickest time ever over the distance. The win marked a return to form and he said his first indoor gold ahead of the American was as important to him as his Olympic victory two years earlier.^[8]

Achievements

Personal bests

Event	Time (seconds)	Venue	Date
50 metres hurdles	6.39	Stockholm, Sweden	21 February 2008
60 metres hurdles	7.33	Düsseldorf, Germany	8 February 2008
110 metres hurdles	12.87	Ostrava, Czech Republic	12 June 2008

• All information from IAAF Profile^[9]

Competition record

Robles celebrating gold at the 2010 World Indoors

References

External links

• IAAF profile for Dayron Robles
• IAAF "Focus on Athletes" article

Records
Preceded by Liu Xiang	Men's 110 m Hurdles World Record Holder June 12, 2008 –	Succeeded by Incumbent
Sporting positions
Preceded by Liu Xiang	Men's 110 m Hurdles Best Year Performance 2007 (alongside Liu Xiang), 2008	Succeeded by Incumbent
Preceded by Asafa Powell	IAAF Performance of the Year 2008	Succeeded by Incumbent