Two weeks ago Dayron Robles, Olympic champion in Beijing 2008 and former world record holder in the 110 meter hurdles, returned to action after a surprise attendance to the athletic meeting in Turin, Italy.
With his usual glasses adjusted to his face phlegmatic raced the stretch in a discrete 13.85 seconds. But back then the time matter little. All eyes were focused on unravel who he was racing for, after dropping from the Cuban athletics national team.
Well, Dayron Robles ran for Dayron Robles. The own curiosity surrounding the Cuban gave him the freedom to enroll in Turin without being attached to any professional club or belonging officially to any nation. Of course the Italian city opened the doors to the new chapter of the novel by the Cuban regardless the outcome.
But now things have changed and Dayron is between a rock and a hard place. It seems that the Cuban Athletics Federation did not like at all the trick of Dayron and wants to get over with the seek and hide game that the hurdler started in January 2013 with the application to exit the national team.
It turns out that the hurdler has been denied his participation in the Grand Prix in Gothenburg, for not meeting the requirements to take part in international competitions as their regulations establish. Dayron Robles has lost custody of Cuba, which was endorsed in recent days by the head of the Cuban entity Alberto Juantorena, in a letter to the Council of the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF).
Juantorena explained that Cuba neither supports nor authorizes Dayron Robles to compete for a problem of discipline and sportsmanship, which resulted in the IAAF issued a statement addressing all the organizers of athletic events that are organized worldwide.
“No athlete may participate in international competitions unless he is a member of a club or the country federation”, Juantorena read to the Cuban press the Official Rules that govern IAAF competitions. The official also said that in the coming weeks, Dayron may be signed by any international club in an attempt to legitimize his status.
“However, if it happens that way he could not go to any Championship or World, Pan American or regional Games until two years pass or and then he has the citizenship of another country,” Alberto Juantorena said.
Robles is listed in the Remis athletic rally to be held on June 28, but if by that time he does not have a club to represent him his luck go down the same path as in Gothenburg. The truth is that the Cuban has not alternatives but to clarify his future without intrigue.
Many say that in a few hours he will be signed for the French professional club AS Monaco. But so far nothing is known, except that if Dayron Robles wants to keep running on athletic tracks of the world, it will be under the auspices of someone.
