THE LATEST in the aches, pains & eligibility departments:
Team USA lost 3 major women’s World-Half Marathon team members: when first Sara Hall withdrew because of an unspecified injury sustained while practicing for the Boston Marathon’s downhill sections;
Then Jordan Hasay pulled out, her agent citing “tight plantar” for her withdrawal;
Then a bad knee knocked out Natosha Rogers.
Team Kenya also took some major hits shortly pre-Valencia. Bedan Muchiri was sidelined by a hamstring problem, and on the women’s side Mary Wacera and Fancy Chemutai withdrew for unexplained reasons.
The third-leg runner on Team USA’s reigning world 4×1 champs, Morolake Akinosun had surgery on a ruptured right Achilles in early February.
Russian high jumper Anna Chicherova has indicated she probably won’t return to competition when her doping ban expires on June 30.
With some two dozen races under his belt already this year, prep sprint star Tyrese Cooper has been sidelined by a groin injury that impacts his hip flexor; he’s expected to miss 6-8 weeks.
Though he won the NCAA high jump, USC’s Randall Cunningham came away with a broken tibia and fibula and will miss the outdoor season.
World 50K walk champ Yohan Diniz suffered a stress reaction in December.
Heather Kampf, after losing a chunk of the ’17 season to a sacral stress fracture on her right side, now is sidelined with a similar fracture on the left side.
Retirement time for Aussie javelin thrower Kim Mickle, who said on Instagram that it was time to “officially hang up the old smelly javelin boots.”
Double jump threat Jah-Nhai Perinchief of Arkansas bypassed the NCAA Indoor because of a hamstring injury.
An unspecified injury knocked Asafa Powell out of the Commonwealth Games.
German heptathlete Claudia Salman-Rath is recovering from knee surgery.
After missing the Worlds javelin last year with a back injury, Sunette Viljoen had to skip the South African champs because of ongoing rehabilitation.
