STATUS QUO — September

THE LATEST in the aches, pains & eligibility departments, focusing on all kinds of Tokyo problems:

After winning an Olympic title and 7 World Championships golds, Brittney Reese says there’ll be no more playing in the sand. (KIRBY LEE/IMAGE OF SPORT)

Nigerian sprinter Enoch Adegoke surprised by running a PR 9.98 heat. He then made the final but pulled up with a hamstring injury 30m in.

After her balky hamstring kept her from advancing to the 100 final, Dina Asher-Smith (see Last Lap) pulled out of the 200, but did run the subsequent 4×1 for Britain.

British vaulter Harry Coppell suffered a freak training accident. After landing in the pit he reached up to grab the pole as it fell toward him. He missed and the pole slammed him on the mouth, smashing his two front teeth. He later said, “All night with the dentist and I have one less tooth.”

After falling short on his last bid to make it to Tokyo Mo Farah revealed that he had been running with a fractured left foot. At 38, he says he’s not done with the sport, “I don’t want to end it like this. I want to continue to keep pushing.”

Britain’s Adam Gemili injured his hamstring in his first few strides of the 200 heats.

She PRed at 49.71 in the 400 semis but Cuba’s Roxana Gómez was unable to finish the final because of a leg injury.

Euro 400 champ Matthew Hudson-Smith withdrew from the British team on unspecified “medical grounds” but noted that it wasn’t COVID.

Surprise 100 champ Lamont Marcell Jacobs announced he had a minor knee injury and wouldn’t run again this season.

Standing 5th after three events, Katarina Johnson-Thompson had to withdraw from the heptathlon after injuring her calf in the 200.

An ankle injury kept Kenyan Geoffrey Kamworor from running in the 10,000.

Germany’s Niklas Kaul, the reigning world champ, dropped out of the decathlon after injuring his ankle in the high jump.

Star U.S. vaulter Sam Kendricks tested positive for COVID while in Tokyo and was kept from competing.

Former World Junior champ Morgan Lake withdrew from the Tokyo high jump with a foot injury.

Renaud Lavillenie struggled as a result of a ruptured ankle ligament that happened before the Games.

After falling in the 1500 heats and being advanced on appeal Poland’s Marcin Lewandowski dropped out of his semi with an injury.

A knee injury kept London 1500 champ (and Rio silver medalist) Taoufik Makhloufi out of the Games; he also cited a lack of fitness after catching C19 last year.

Bahraini runner Sadik Mikhou, a 3:33.31 performer who had been entered in the 1500, instead got a provisional ban for blood doping.

Sandi Morris hyper-extended her hip flexor just before her pole broke during qualifying. “I’m devastated… but I’m going to be OK,” she said. Doctors say no surgery and a 6-week rehab.

Swiss vaulter Angelica Moser will miss the remainder of the season after getting injured while breaking a pole in training.

Katie Nageotte readied for her gold medal vault performance with a bout of food poisoning and an allergic reaction to an antibiotic.” Not exactly the plan we had for my last couple weeks of preparation,” she said.

Notre Dame’s Yared Nuguse suffered a quad strain and made the decision after trying to warm-up not to start the 1500 heats.

Veteran Nigerian sprinter Blessing Okagbare was suspended for an earlier out-of-competition HGH positive after running the 100 heats.

Rio 110H runner-up Orlando Ortega pulled out with an unspecified injury.

Aisha Praught-Leer, still competed for Jamaica in the 1500 despite tearing the meniscus in her left knee in a “freak, shocking accident” prior to the Games. She had surgery in mid-August.

Russia’s Sergey Shubenkov was a DNC in the 110H after a suspected Achilles rupture.

Ayanleh Souleiman of Djibouti was unable to finish his 1500 semi because of injury.

Polish 1-lapper Justyna Święty-Ersetic suffered a quad injury prior to the Games and so concentrated only on the mixed 4×4.

A hip injury felled OT Marathon winner Aliphine Tuliamuk in the Sapporo 26-miler.

British sprinter CJ Ujah has been provisionally suspended after a positive test. He ran in the heats for the silver medal 4×1 team; that medal is at risk pending the resolution of his case.

Belgian decathlete Thomas van der Plaetsen blew out his knee while long jumping in the multi.

Swiss sprinter Alex Wilson had his provisional suspension reinstated by the AIU after a Swiss court lifted it and he ran a reported 9.84/19.89 double in Marietta, Georgia, times that World Athletics confirmed as not legitimate.


The Retirement Department…

With his DNF in the 50K, WR holder Yohan Diniz of France announced he was done at age 43.

Triple jump ace Caterine Ibargüen is hanging them up at 37. The Colombian won gold in Rio as well as World titles in ’13 and ’15.

After the long jump ’12 Olympic champ and 4-time world champ Brittney Reese signaled her farewell at age 34, saying, “It’s a great feeling. I had a great career. I had a great journey. I’m just blessed. I’ve been in this sport for 13 years, and to finish my career with a silver I can’t complain.”

British quartermiler Martyn Rooney, a 44.45 performer in ’15, is done at 34.

Olha Saladukha, the ’11 World champ in the triple jump, announced her retirement after missing the final. She is 38.


Doping Suspensions…

8 years (from 4) — Lupita González (Mexico, walks);
4 years — Alphas Kishoyan (Kenya, 400);
1 year — Alex Quiñónez (Ecuador, sprints);
9 months — Kariem Hussein (Switzerland, 400H). □

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