Aug. 6, 2010

BARCELONA (ESP) - Former Memphis Tiger track and field standout Daniel Kiss represented his home nation of Hungary at the recently completed 20th European Championships, bringing home a bronze medal in the 110-meter hurdles with a 13.39 mark.

The bronze earned by the Memphis alum was one of three medals, all bronze, the Hungarian national team earned in Barcelona, and the first earned on the track by a Hungarian since 2002. Russia led the medal table with 24 as a nation.

Kiss' bronze continues a long string of accomplishments he has earned throughout his athletics career. He still holds U of M records in the 110-meter hurdles (13.49 seconds) and in the 60-meter hurdles (7.84 seconds), which he set at the C-USA Indoor Championships. Both records were set in 2005, after Kiss was injured for most of 2004 with a broken foot.

"He broke his foot in the C-USA Championships in '04, and still managed to finish the race," said Memphis track and field head coach Kevin Robinson. "That pretty much wiped out the rest of 2004. He ran well in 2005, but I'd say it took him two years to get back to where he was."

Shortly after leaving Memphis, Kiss got his first taste of international glory. He finished an impressive seventh at the 19th European Championships with a mark of 13.77 seconds, leading Hungary Kiss represented Hungary in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, bowing out in the quarterfinal round after a 13.63 run left him out of the semifinals.

"Based on the time he ran at the European Championships, he's ready (for the 2012 Olympics)," said Robinson. "The time he ran would've put him in the finals at the last Olympics. He's talented enough physically and motivated enough to make it happen."

2010 has been a launching point for Kiss' career. In February, he set the Hungarian record in the 60-meter hurdles with a 7.56 mark in his hometown of Budapest. A month later, he finished eighth in the 60-meter hurdles at the IAAF World Indoor Championships with a respectable 7.81 time.

On June 20, Kiss cemented his legacy in Hungarian track and field lore by breaking the national 110-meter hurdle record at the 2010 European Team First League Championships with a 13.32 mark, besting his next closest competitor by almost three tenths of a second.

"Daniel has been competitive in several international events since he left Memphis," said Robinson. "He's now one of the best athletes in Hungary and a really good representative of the University of Memphis program."