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Dawn Harper stages hurdles upset in Zagreb

Dayron Robles of Cuba leaps on his way to winning the men’s 110m hurdles competition at the Zagreb Grand Prix in Croatia on Tuesday.  PHOTO: AP

US athlete Dawn Harper backed up her unexpected 100m hurdles gold medal at the Olympics by winning at the Zagreb Grand Prix against four other Beijing finalists on Tuesday. Cuba’s Dayron Robles meanwhile won the men’s 110m hurdles in Zagreb for the third time in a row.

Harper won her race in 12.65 seconds, beating Jamaican Delloreen Ennis-London by 0.05 seconds. Canadian Priscilla Lopes-Schliep, who took bronze at the Games, was third in 12.86, and the silver medalist, Sally McLellan of Australia, was fourth.

Harper said it was her best race since Beijing.

Robles, the Olympic champ and world record-holder, clocked 13.20 seconds, 0.46 faster than Richard Phillips of Jamaica. Petr Swoboda of the Czech Republic was third.

“Everything I did for the past few seasons was paid off this year,” Robles said.

Nesta Carter of Jamaica — a relay gold medal winner at Beijing — won the men’s 100m in 10.23, and compatriot Veronica Campbell-Brown — the Olympic 200 gold medalist — the women’s sprint in 11.10.

Silver medalist in Beijing and two-time world champion Yipsi Moreno of Cuba threw a personal-best 76.62m in the hammer, 4m better than second-placed Martina Danisova-Hrasnova of Slovakia. Olympic gold medalist Aksana Miankova withdrew a day earlier, citing an unspecified illness.

In high jump, Olympic silver medalist Blanka Vlasic of Croatia won with 2.04m after Russian Anna Chicherova — who took bronze at the Olympics — withdrew at 2.04m.

In women’s discus, Olympic silver medalist Yarelis Barrios of Cuba achieved 64.98m to beat Olympic champ Stephanie Brown-Trafton of the US.

Hungarian Krisztian Pars also relegated the Olympic winner into second place in the men’s hammer, throwing 80.04m, 97cm better than Primoz Kozmus of Slovenia.

Pars is expected to get the silver from the Olympics after Vadim Devyatovskiy of Belarus was caught doping.
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