The 2009 Zagreb Grand Prix, which will take place on Monday, 31 August 2009, has got this year’s first international star.[:]
The 110m Hurdles World Record Holder and Olympic Champion Dayron Robles (aged 23) will run in the Mladost Stadium for the fourth time in a row.
The Zagreb Grand Prix organizers are especially proud when someone, who they have introduced as a young talented athlete, keeps coming to Zagreb after he or she has reached the world’s top. The Cuban hurdler is such an athlete, and moreover, he runs the Boris Hanzekovic Memorial Race, the event, which has a special place with everybody tied to this meeting.
Robles ran at Zagreb for the first time in 2006 and that was the only time he did not win. He ran 13.20 and the legendary Allen Johnson was faster by a hundredth of a second. A year later, Robles was the fastest with 13.35 in rainy and stormy weather. Last September, as current world record holder and new Olympic Champion, he ran 13.20 again.
This year, Robles could come to Zagreb with the world champion title, as he is the main favourite at the World Championships, which will take place about ten days before the 2009 Zagreb Grand Prix.
Dayron Robles
– born in Guantanamo, Cuba, on 19 November 1986
– 110m hurdles world record holder with 12.87 (12 June 2008)
– 2008 Olympic Champion from Beijing
– 2006 60m hurdles world indoor silver medallist from Moscow
– second-fastest ever in the 60m hurdles with 7.33