Dayron Robles crosses the line first ahead of David Payne in second and David Oliver in third (© Getty Images)
Olympic 110m Hurdles champion Dayron Robles is making no promises but his World record could be threatened when competing at the ÅF Golden League Weltklasse meeting in Zürich on Friday (29).
The 21-year-old Cuban who ran 12.93 to win the Olympic title in Beijing on 21 August, having broken China’s Liu Xiang’s World record in early June with a scintillating 12.87 in Ostrava, believes another fast time will be on the cards in the Letzigrund stadium this Friday when he again faces David Oliver (USA), the Olympic bronze medallist.
"Winning the Olympic final in Beijing was not a surprise to me," said Robles. "Anything else would have been a huge disappointment. So far, I have not had time to celebrate too much. I am still motivated to achieve big things.”
"At Weltklasse, I would like to run a fast, exciting race to give back as much as possible to the phenomenal Zürich fans.”
"I remember one time I came here, I arrived only two hours prior to my race, dead tired from the trip but I still managed to come in second behind Allen Johnson (four-time World champion).”
"This time, I arrived in time - I am relaxed, so I will be much better prepared for the race on Friday night. It will be a great race."
The newly crowned Olympic champion also paid tribute to the Chinese star, Liu Xiang, who he has now followed as the Olympic title holder, but was unable to complete his opening heat in Beijing because of injury.
"I felt extremely sorry for Liu Xiang in Beijing," said Robles. "It was easy to imagine what he must have been going through.
"It's a pity that we did not get to race each other I was ready for that race."
Dave Martin – PA International – for the IAAF