THE LATEST in the aches, pains & eligibility departments:
Whereabouts failures strike again. This time it’s confirmation of the AIU case against triple jumper Omar Craddock, who has been suspended for a trio of misses and will miss the Olympic Trials. In fact, with a 20-month suspension that goes till July 13 of ’22 he’ll also be out for next year’s WC Trials. The tribunal judge said in a published ruling that he had “a great deal of sympathy” for one of the violations, when Craddock said he was attending Black Lives Matter protests. An appeal to CAS remains an option.
A 12.77 hurdler and 6290-point heptathlete, France’s Solène Ndama tore her ACL in February and is out of the race to the Olympics.
Kevin Kranz, the Euro Indoor 60 silver medalist, will miss the Olympics after a thigh injury that occurred while he was at a German team camp.
9-time Hungarian national hammer champ Ėva Orbán has retired at age 36. A 3-time Olympian, she also won the ’08 NCAA title while schooling at USC.
The Olympics are a no-go for David Rudisha. The 2-time 800 winner, now 32, has struggled with a fractured ankle, but his agent says he hasn’t retired: “He is contemplating his future. That is for him to decide.”
Swedish long jumper Khaddi Sagnia has had minor knee surgery but is still set on the Olympics.
Claudia Salman-Rath has announced her retirement. The German heptathlete/hurdler has had a tough time since going through a difficult childbirth, and has had several knee operations.
British 800 runner Lynsey Sharp has postponed her comeback as she is expecting a baby. She has not raced since a cancer scare in ’19.
Reigning 2-time Olympic gold medalist Christian Taylor completely ruptured his Achilles in the Ostrava triple jump and had next-morning surgery. See Last Lap for more.
Prep distance star Sydney Thorvaldson had to shut down her season early after being diagnosed with a stress fracture.
Wayde van Niekerk says that his televised cramp in the right thigh in Boston was just that, “Nothing serious.”
Nadine Visser was a DNF in her first outdoor hurdle race because of a hamstring injury. Said the Dutch Olympian, “I don’t know how bad it is yet, but hopefully recovery will not take too much time.”
In The C19 Ward
Sprinter English Gardner reports that she had a C19 bout, tweeting, “Fought covid for 3 weeks n stepped on that track n competed I’m not happy about my results but I thank God for my life.”
Already a cancer survivor, Chaunté Lowe has revealed that she is struggling to get past C19 effects in her campaign to make it to her fifth Olympics. Says the AR-holding high jumper, “I’m trying to figure out where I am in these last few weeks before Trials and hoping that my strength returns. I have to put my foot completely on the gas and I’m pulling out every trick in my bag to try to make that team.”
Polish quartermiler Justyna Święty-Ersetic is still dealing with the effects of C19 that she contracted in April. “I dropped out of training for a long time, the return was not easy,” she said, “the virus left traces. It was a very difficult time for me, but recently there is a light in the tunnel and I believe that it will be good and we will see you in the stadiums soon.”
Doping Suspensions…
4 years — James Wangari (Kenya, distance);
20 months — Omar Craddock (U.S., triple jump);
16 months — Garfield Darien (France, 110H). □