THE LATEST in the aches, pains & eligibility departments:
File the month’s big SQ news under “turning pro early,” as 4 Collegiate Record holders—Rai Benjamin (USC), Josh Kerr (New Mexico), Sydney McLaughlin (Kentucky), Michael Norman (USC)—have all announced their decision to forego further collegiate eligibility (see here for more). McLaughlin’s national champ teammate Jasmine Camacho-Quinn also joined the parade.
10,000 WR holder Almaz Ayana has not competed yet this year because of a knee injury.
Belgian 400 star Kevin Borlée is currently troubled by a hamstring injury.
Marie Bouchard, the USF senior from France, was No. 2 on the NCAA list in the steeplechase but lost the end of her season after injuring her Achilles on the water jump at the Jordan Invitational.
Taliyah Brooks of Arkansas scratched from the NCAA heptathlon because of an ongoing ankle/heel injury.
The “leg tweak” reported for Christian Coleman reported here last month, has morphed into a right hamstring injury and he has withdrawn from the USATF meet.
Knee surgery has cropped up as a possibility for yearly world discus leader Fedrick Dacres of Jamaica, who has been enjoying the best season of his life.
London Olympic 400 champ Kirani James has been diagnosed with Graves’ Disease (see here for more).
Emmanouíl Karalís, Greece’s teenage pole vault sensation, is out for the season with a leg injury and thus will not challenge Mondo Duplantis at the World Juniors
Leonard Korir, 3rd in the USATF 10,000 last year, is injured.
BYU’s 13.20 hurdler, Alyssa Monteverde-Dalton, finished last in her NCAA heat at 15.05—running with the ACL that she tore at the West Regional.
Canadian vaulter Alysha Newman tore her patellar tendon in the warm-ups at Prefontaine but hopes to recover in time to compete again soon.
After winning the long jump at the Kusociński meet in Poland, Brittney Reese pulled the plug on her season and will begin training for ’19.
That injury that stopped Botswana’s Isaac Makwala at the Prefontaine Classic turned out to be a hamstring tear.
German vaulter Lisa Ryzih will miss the European Championships, as she is still recovering from an early-May Achilles tear.
Thomas Staines, who dazzled in Div. II for Colorado State–Pueblo this year with a 1:45.57 best at 800, says his season is over. The Briton added that he intends to complete his last 2 years of college before he turns pro.
Jamaican sprinter Kerron Stewart, the ’08 silver medalist at 100, is planning to retire at the end of the season.
Johannes Vetter, one of Germany’s big javelin stars, pulled out of two meets in June with what he describes as a “small injury” to his right leg.
Javelin thrower Madison Wiltrout, the HS Record holder, redshirted her first year at North Carolina after a weight room injury.
4-year doping suspensions for a pair of javelin throwers: Ihab Abdelrahman (Egypt) & Yegor Nikolayev (Russia). □
