Here’s the latest in the aches, pains & eligibility departments (our big collegiate-recruiting guide will appear in next month’s edition):
Nijel Amos said that an Achilles injury caused him to pull out of the WC 800.
Not looking 100%, long hurdler Rai Benjamin revealed that a heel bruise caused by a practice fall held him back at the Worlds.
Olympic champion Vivian Cheruiyot had to withdraw from the Berlin Marathon because of recurring Achilles tendinitis.
Worknesh Degefa, this year’s Boston winner, has withdrawn from the NYC Marathon because of inflammation in the ball of her left foot (metatarsalgia).
Distance great Shalane Flanagan (see Last Lap) has announced her retirement.
English Gardner pulled a hamstring in the WC 100 semis.
A sharp pain early in the Chicago Marathon knocked Jordan Hasay out of the race.
Estonia’s javelin silver medalist Magnus Kirt celebrated by having surgery on his throwing shoulder in mid-October. He dislocated the joint at Doha in throwing himself to the ground at the end of his approach.
A thigh injury kept Russia’s Darya Klishina from competing in the WC long jump.
Aussie vault hope Kurt Marschall had a 19-3 (5.87) indoors but then the wheels came off. First came a stress fracture in his L5 vertebrae, then a rotator cuff tendon tear in his right shoulder. Now rehabbed, he just started vaulting again in October.
Deca WR holder Kevin Mayer withdrew from the Doha competition when his left hamstring went bad. He said he also had knee problems the previous day.
Reigning Olympic hammer champ Dilshod Nazarov was provisionally suspended after a retest of his ’11 WC sample and didn’t throw at the WC. In addition to being a Doha entry, he has also been serving as president of the Tajikistan federation.
Michael Norman attributed his failure to make the 400 final to a strain that had bothered him all summer. Michael Johnson said it was an adductor problem.
Germany’s Tatjana Pinto had to withdraw from the WC 4×1 because of a knee injury felled her in the 200 semis.
At age 36, Finland’s Tero Pitkämäki, the ’07 javelin world champ, has finally called it a career, troubled by ongoing knee problems.
Colleen Quigley was a late withdrawal from the Doha steeple, saying she had been troubled by a hip injury since late August.
Bahrein’s Albert Rop, 6th in the Rio 5000 final, has been provisionally suspended for whereabouts failures.
Galen Rupp has reported that it was a calf strain that caused him to drop out of Chicago after 23M.
The adductor problem that has troubled Dafne Schippers all year flared up in Doha, keeping her out of the 100 final.
German javelin thrower Bernhard Seifert was replaced on the Doha team because of problems with his left leg.
Côte d’Ivoire’s Marie-Josée Ta Lou says that her sprinting has been hampered all year by a knee injury.
Nafi Thiam had her elbow flare up again in Doha. The Belgian heptathlon star’s coach says there will be no rush to bring her back fast: “She will take some time off before we start specific rehabilitation as we did for her calf after her tear in January. We will take 6 months if necessary.”
Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson withdrew from the Doha 200 and the 4×1 with a recurring Achilles injury.
Johannes Vetter won a bronze in the Doha javelin despite a season troubled by a bone that had become dislodged in his foot; surgery came after the Worlds.
Jackline Wambui, former World Youth champion and winner of the Kenyan Trials in the 800, was dropped from the Doha squad after she refused to take a testosterone test. She is apparently no relation to Margaret Wambui, the Rio bronze medalist who has not competed since the testosterone rule went into effect.
Berehanu Wendim, the African Games 10,000 champion for Ethiopia who had run 27:00.73, has been provisionally suspended after a positive test for EPO.
Kenyan marathoner Vincent Yator has been provisionally suspended after an unspecified positive test.
Doping bans:
4 years—Mustapha El Aziz (Morocco, distances), Anton Ivakin (Russia, pole vault), Nirmala Sheoran (India, 400). □
