Dayron Wants to Reach Tokyo-2020
especiales
The news from Cuban athletics these days is the comeback to the tracks of hurdler Dayron Robles.
Still unable to recover the shape that led him to become Olympic champion and world-record holder, the runner from Guantanamo has remained competing interchangeably abroad in recent years, but last weekend he wanted to offer his public a good performance at the Pan American Stadium, in Havana.
Firstly, he specified that he’s just finished a stage of general preparation, and started the special one, so he should not make an outstanding mark. "Our aim is to achieve the best results for the summer, adding technical elements to improve my times little by little. The required mark to attend the world championship is 13.48 seconds. It’s not complicated to achieve it. I’m in good physical conditions, and I will take every competition as a step towards the next one. I feel with the same desires and mentality to win everything. Injuries have been my main rival, but I hope to reach Tokyo-2020, should the physical shape accompanies me”.
In this regard, I also talked to his new coach, Manuel Mayor, who showed optimism too.
"We started working together on November 21, 2016, and so far he’s behaving well, without injury problems, which is our main concern.
I’ve been working in the grassroots for 30 years and based on my experience, we’ve focused on what we consider his weak points, and I am demanding him to the maximum physically".
Do you think you can return to star levels?
"The race pace we have developed so far go as planned, and according to his current moment of preparation. He is a world-class athlete and by July he should be around 13.21 seconds, which is not a superelite mark, but it is according to his age and what we hope in this first year".
How has your relationship been?
"He’s more motivated, because there’s good chemistry with me and the rest of the boys of the specialty. We do not know each other completely, but when we were together in Germany (January) we closed ranks in personal and work terms, and families support quite a lot, both his and mine".
I only have to wish them good luck in this new stage, and hopefully injuries will respect him so he can reach the Japanese summer event.
Translation Jorge Mesa Benjamin / CubaSi Translation Staff
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