Dayon Robles and David Oliver at the Areva Meeting - Samsung Diamond League press conference, 7 July (© Errol Anderson)
The clash between the fastest and third quickest 110m Hurdlers of all-time Cuba’s Dayron Robles (12.87) and David Oliver (12.89) of the USA will be one of the highlights of tomorrow evening’s (Fri 8) Meeting Areva – Samsung Diamond League - in the Stade de France.
“Yes, I believe it’s a very good stadium here, he's (Dayron) got the meeting record (12.88) and I set the American record (12.89) here last year, so maybe we’ll run a fast time here tomorrow,” commented the USA’s Olympic bronze medallist.
“The race three years ago was one of those life time races which just had that feeling of being one of the best races, technically and fundamentally I had ever run,” said Robles’ reflecting on his 12.88 run in Paris in 2008.
"The athletes make the surface"
A new Mondo surface has now been laid at the Stade de France since last year's meeting, and it is said to be very fast but neither man today was going to let that corner them into predicting even faster times this year.
“I’ve always felt that it’s the athletes that make the surface. When you have a great line-up as we do here you are likely to get a fast time,” conjectured Oliver. It was a statement with which Robles concurred, “yes it’s the athletes that make the track, rather than the track making the athlete.”
Equally balanced
In their direct career win-loss record together which began back when they first met in August 2006, Olympic champion and World record holder Robles is vastly superior having a lead of 16 to 4 but in their six races since Oliver’s emergence into the world’s top echelons in 2008 their battles have been even, each beating the other 3 times.
So what about their next encounter tomorrow?
Oliver, the world season leader with 12.94 and so far the only man under 13sec this year (4 June in Eugene Samsung Diamond League when he beat 2004 Olympic champion Liu Xiang) is “definitely in good shape."
"I haven’t run so much this year as opposed to last year but I still feel my times have been pretty good. I was able to run 13.04 in Eugene (at the US Trials, 25 June) and I didn’t even start the race very well. My only concern is staying healthy as we all know Dayron and myself have both had injuries in the past.”
For Robles, in Paris “the most important thing is that I remain healthy and that I find a rhythm and tempo. There are so many good hurdlers here I have to be at my best if I am to be competitive, and tomorrow night’s race is important to find out how much I must do still to get back to the old Robles.”
“At one point 13secs was like breaking a World record for me, it was something mythical and I now have to start getting back into fighting mode and good shape so I can get back under. I know I can do it,” said the Cuban.
Touch down in Daegu
When looking beyond Paris to the IAAF World Championships in Daegu, Korea (27 Aug to 4 Sep) and the prospect of racing a fit and resurgent Liu Xiang, the former World record holder who is the second fastest man of all-time (12.88, 2006), both Oliver and Robles were up-beat.
“It’s pretty cool (to have Liu Xiang back this season). We (110mH) have always been the best event in my opinion but of course that opinion is biased,” Oliver said with a laugh.
“To have Dayron and Xiang, the two fastest hurdlers of all-time racing and myself the third fastest is cool. Of course the 100m guys have had that too (with Bolt, Gay and Powell) and it’s the glamour event of track and field and so they deserve their limelight but we (hurdlers) will have a great World Championships final. I just hope we all can get there healthy and give our best.”
“I spoke to David about a year ago,” recalled Robles, “and told him that I had seen this coming, that the hurdles would reach this level of excellence and that we should be as good if not better than the 100 metres men in terms of their quality… and my goal is to get into some epic battles so that we can re-write the IAAF World record books in the future.”
Both men today were talking-up a good race and the prospect is that if the predicted rain holds off then Paris could quite well see both run under 13secs. Robles’ 13.16 sec race into a 2 metres headwind (Reims, 5 July) augurs well for the Cuban’s shape, and now with the US Trials behind Oliver the pressure is off the American who succinctly summed-up the situation of the USATF champs, as follows:
“Whether you are 1st, 2nd or 3rd at the US Trials the wheels will still touch down at Daegu international airport, and so you set out to accomplish something different there (US Trials) to a normal meeting when the aim is to win.”
And today there was certainly no doubting the desire of both men to win here on Friday.
Chris Turner for the IAAF
