Two co-favorites for the competitions of the World Athletics Championships in Eugene/Oregon starting Friday canceled their participation in the title fights at the beginning of the week.
400m Olympic champion Steven Gardiner had to bury his hopes of successfully defending his title because of tendinitis. Kenyan Olympic marathon champion Peres Jepchirchir is sidelined with a hip injury.
“Because of an inflammation of a tendon, I was advised to wear normal walking shoes instead of my spike shoes in the near future,” Gardiner wrote on social networks. With a best time of 44.21 seconds for the season, the 26-year-old would have traveled to Eugene as number five in this year’s world rankings.
Jepchirchir confirmed her involuntary World Cup renunciation to the AFP news agency. “I injured my hip in training and the doctor said I had to take a break,” said Jepchirchir.
A good year after her gold medal at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, the African was one of the big favorites for the World Cup. The two-time half-marathon world champion underlined her ambitions for Eugene by winning the Boston Marathon in the spring.