Turin, Italy - Cuba’s 110m Hurdles Olympic champion and World record holder Dayron Robles and Sudan’s 800m World indoor champion Abubaker Kaki will be in the spotlight as the Memorial Primo Nebiolo in Turin, named in honour of the late IAAF President, celebrates its 10th Anniversary on Thursday (4).

The Memorial Primo Nebiolo is part of a select group of Area meetings at which points can be acquired by athletes to qualify for the IAAF / VTB Bank World Athletics Final, to be held on 12-13 September in Thessaloniki, Greece.

2009 outdoor debut for Robles

Robles will open his season in Torino after being sidelined by a minor injury during the indoor season. The Cuban star returns to Torino where he warmed up last year with a 13.28 performance on a wet evening one week before breaking the World record with a fabulous 12.87 in Ostrava. He went on to win the Olympic title in Beijing and clocked seven performances under the 13 seconds barrier.

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NEWS UPDATE - 4 June 2009

Dayron Robles has arrived to Turin but has decided to postpone his debut to 10 June in Thessaloniki, Greece, and so will not now race in Turin.

See the latest Robles' IAAF Online Diary in 'Related Content' under photograph to the right of this text

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Robles will face former World junior champion Aries Merritt (who beat the Cuban at the 2004 World Junior Championships in Grosseto) of the US; Dexter Faulk, an American specialist who emerged during the 2009 winter season with a solid indoor campaign in which he clocked 7.50 in the 60m Hurdles; Bahamian Shamar Sands, who improved indoors to 7.49 last winter; and Briton Andy Turner, who ran 13.30 on Monday to win in Hengelo.

Kaki brings his early season momentum to Italy

Kaki, who became the youngest athlete to win a World indoor title with a fabulous gun-to-tape race in 1:44.81 in Valencia last year, broke the World junior record with 1:42.69 at the ÅF Golden League meeting in Oslo last year and then won the World junior title in Bydgoszcz, Poland, but did not get through the semifinals at the Olympic Games. This year Kaki has remained unbeaten in his three indoor appearances and has already impressed outdoors with the two fastest times in the world this year of 1:43.09 in Doha and 1:43.10 in Hengelo.

The other top names in the men’s 800m will be Latvia’s Dmitrijs Milkevics (1:45:21 this year in Doha), Russian Dmitriy Bogdanov and a group of Italian middle distance hopefuls led by 1500m Olympic finallist Christian Obrist.

Copello and Giralt kick off their European season against Idowu

Cuba will lead an impressive men’s Triple Jump competition which features two specialists from the Caribbean Island: Alexis Copello, the winner of the Memorial Barrientos last weekend with a 17.65m leap, the season’s second farthest; and David Giralt, who has already reached 17.62m this season. The Cuban pair will square off against reigning World indoor champion and Olympic silver medallist Phillips Idowu from Great Britain, who broke the British indoor record with 17.75m in Valencia in 2008 and made his seasonal debut this summer with a wind-assisted 17.60m in Chania, Greece, on Monday.

European indoor champs revisited

Turin played host to a fabulous edition of the European Indoor Championships last March and the organizers of the Memorial Primo Nebiolo invited some of the stars who created the headlines at the Oval Lingotto.

Briton Mo Farah will return to the city where he won the continental 3000m indoor title capping an impressive indoor season in which he also broke the British 3000m indoor record with his 7:34.47 in Birmingham, the fourth fastest time in the world last winter.

The meeting will also be a parade of Italian stars who contributed to the success of the European Indoor Championships. The Italian top name on show during the Nebiolo meeting will be 800m European indoor bronze medal and national indoor record holder Elisa Cusma.

Cusma enjoyed a sensational breakthrough indoor season in which she became the first Italian 800m runner to dip under the two-minute barrier indoors after her 1:59.25 in Karlsruhe. Cusma, who made a good start to the outdoor season winning the 1500m at the European Club Championships in Castellon, Spain, last weekend, will fight against Russian 1:56 runners Ekaterina Kostetskaya and Svetlana Klyuka, who was fourth at the Olympic Games in Beijing.

Di Martino looking to bounce back to ’07 form

Another athlete who has a great memory of Turin is Italian High Jump record holder Antonietta Di Martino who broke the Italian outdoor record in her magic 2007 season clearing 2.02m, before going on to claim the world silver medal in Osaka with 2.03m. After a difficult 2008 season in which she struggled to return to her best form, Di Martino competed only once during the indoor season clearing 1.96m at the National Championships in Turin but a bout of flu prevented her from competing at the European indoors on home turf. In her outdoor debut Di Martino will battle against a solid field which includes Russian Viktoriya Klyugina, Kazakhistan’s Marina Aitova, and Canada’s Nicole Forrester. Aitova won at this meeting last year with 1.96m.

The Nebiolo Day will be opened by a great women’s Hammer Throw which promises great throws over the 75m barrier from reigning World champion Betty Heidler from Germany and Poland’s Anita Wlodarczyk, currently second on the world lists with 76.20m and this year’s winner at the European Cup Winter Throwing. Italian interest will be focused on Olympic and World finalist Clarissa Claretti and Silvia Salis who have both thrown over 71m this year.

In men’s 100m, tough test for Cerutti and Di Gregorio

US 60m champion Mark Jelks and Jamaica’s Dwight Thomas will provide a stiff test to some of the best Italian sprinters who showed promising results this year. The Italian challenge is led by home crowd favourite Fabio Cerutti and Emanuele Di Gregorio, this year’s European indoor silver and bronze medalists, respectively. Di Gregorio recently improved his PB to 10.24 at the Top Club Challenge in Pescara. The field also includes former World and European indoor finalist Simone Collio (10.24 this year in Doha) and Jacques Riparelli who clocked 10.23 last year.

Laverne Jones from the Virgin Islands, currently third on the 200m world seasonal list with 22.46 and the 100/200m winner in Hengelo on Monday, will be the favourite in the women’s 100m.

The fast Turin runway has traditionally thrown up good results in the Long Jump. Olympic finalist Ndiss Kaba Badji from Senegal, who won at home in the Dakar World Athletics Tour meeting in April with a windy 8.29m, will fight against British record holder and 2008 world indoor silver medallist Chris Tomlinson, former World bronze medallist Tommi Evila from Finland, and Wilfredo Martinez from Spain, who was fifth at the Olympic Games in Beijing.

Olympic silver medallist Natalya Miknevich from Belarus, World bronze medallist Nadine Kleinert and 2009 European indoor silver medallist Denise Hinrichs, both from Germany, Italian record holder and world finalist Chiara Rosa (PB 19.15m) and former European indoor champion Assunta Legnante will lead the women’s Shot put field.

Italian 2.30m high jumpers Andrea Bettinelli, Filippo Campioli, Alessandro Talotti and twin brothers Nicola and Giulio Ciotti will fight for a spot on the Italian team for the inaugural European Team Championships in Leiria on 20-21 June.

Trinidad’s Ato Stephens, former world finalist Tim Benjamin from Great Britain, South African triple Paralympic sprint champion Oscar Pistorius and Italian record holder Andrea Barberi will line up in the 400m which will not feature this year’s European indoor 400m silver medallist and 4x400 gold medallist Claudio Licciardello, who is suffering from a tendon injury.

World indoor medallists Candice Davis from the USA and Ana Tejeda from Cuba are the strongest favourites in the women’s 100m Hurdles.

A new track to mark the occasion

A brand new Mondo track will be inaugurated to mark the special anniversary of the 10th Memorial Nebiolo. Turin organisers have invited some past stars of world and Italian athletics, including IAAF Senior Vice President Sergey Bubka, IAAF Vice President Sebastian Coe, and former World record holders Pietro Mennea and Sara Simeoni.

Diego Sampaolo for the IAAF