The prospects of Usain Bolt successively defending his title at the World Championship in Beijing, took a major blow as the World and Olympic champion today pulled out of the Diamond League meetings in Paris and Lausanne because of an injury. This is coming days after he withdrew from the Jamaican trial held at the weekend.
Bolt, whom many people would pay a premium to watch race, was initially slated to compete in these meets on July 4th and 9th respectively, but he has informed the organisers that he cannot be available due to injury.
“I’m disappointed not to be able to compete in Paris and Lausanne. I love running at these meetings but at the moment I am unable to compete at 100%. I look forward to getting back into full training as soon as possible”, the six-time Olympic GOLD Medalist said.
Bolt would have competed in the 100m this Saturday against his compatriot Asafa Powell who has been in fine form, twice running 9.84s this year, and won the Jamaican title last Saturday. And it would have been Bolt’s second race in that distance this year, the first being an exhibition race in Rio De Janeiro that he won in 10.13s.
With the World Championship coming up in August, Bolt’s title credentials are under immense threat from American sprinter, Justin Gatlin who is yet to lose a race this year. Gatlin is the current leader in the Diamond League, and only last weekend at the US trials recorded a lifetime’s Personal Best (PB) in the 200m, running a time of 19.58s.
Last year, Bolt didn’t run in so many races and ended his season with an appearance to anchor Jamaica’s 4x100m relay team that won GOLD at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Interestingly, Bolt hasn’t faced too many crises in his career like he is going through now. In 2012 that his training partner, Yohan Blake defeated him at the Jamaican trials, he still bounced back and claimed triple GOLD at the London 2012 Olympics.
However, he will be feeling a lot of pressure with the World Championship just around the corner, and seeing Gatlin run so well, is this the end of Bolt’s golden era?
