Ethiopian world medal hopes were dealt a further blow yesterday when Olympic champion and world record holder Tirunesh Dibaba pulled out of the women’s 5,000m at the World Athletics Championships.
Cuba’s Olympic champion and world record holder Dayron Robles was also left uncertain for the semi-finals of the 110m hurdles after battling through his heat with an injured left lead leg to eventually clock the slowest time of all qualifiers.
Dibaba, a two-time world champion in the 5,000m (2003 and 2005) who is also the Olympic 10,000m champion, had already pulled out of the longer race last weekend after suffering from an ankle injury all season.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Turkey’s Ethiopian-born double Olympic silver medalist Elvan Abeylegesse, who pulled up during the 10,000m race, also failed to start the 5,000m.
It was instead Dibaba’s arch-rival and compatriot Meseret Defar, the reigning world champion, who set the fastest qualifying time, winning her heat in 15 minutes, 15.45 seconds.
“I pushed the pace because I’ve been a little bit sick and I wanted to see how my body would respond,” Defar said. “I feel okay. I’m pleased I qualified because I really want to win the final.”
PHOTO: AFP
She will be accompanied in Saturday’s final by a trio of teammates — Sentayeju Ejigu, Meselech Melkamu and Genzebe Dibaba.
Kenyans Vivian Cheruiyot, Sylvia Kibet and Iness Chenonge also looked comfortable while progressing at a sun-baked Olympic Stadium.
There looked like being an upset brewing in the 110m hurdles when Robles found himself in sixth place at the halfway mark of his heat.
Robles, sporting a bandaged left thigh under his singlet, fairly labored over the first five hurdles with his lead left leg failing to snap out over the hurdle.
But he somehow managed to find the reserves to pull through the field and sneak into third in 13.67 seconds.
“I feel pain in my left thigh,” Robles said. “I don’t know what’s going on. I thought it was only a small problem, but now I know that I really have a problem.”
“I cannot say that I’ll continue to run or not. I’ll talk with the physiotherapist and doctor, and we’ll see,” he said. “I promised Fidel Castro to bring home the gold medal for him and I want to keep my promise. I am a warrior and I will fight.”
There was also not a good start to the day for Robles’ fellow Cuban Leonel Suarez in the decathlon, which saw Jamaica’s reigning.
American Trey Hardee ran a very decent 10.45 seconds, long jumped a best of 7.83m and recorded a best shot put of 15.33m to lead the overall standings after three events on 2,814 points.
Suarez, the Olympic bronze medalist and firm pre-event favorite for the 10-sport, two-day event in the absence of American Olympic champion Bryan Clay, only managed 11.13 seconds in the 100m, 7.24m in the long jump and 15.20m in the shot, sitting 14th out of the 38 starting competitors.
There was earlier heartbreak for reigning world silver medalist Maurice Smith of Jamaica who pulled up during the 100m with what looked like a hamstring injury.
In qualification for the women’s discus throw, Olympic champion Stephanie Brown Trafton failed to hit the minimum standard of 61.50m, managing a best of 61.23m but progressing as one of the top 12 finishers.
“This will hopefully stimulate me to my best in the final because I consider myself as an underdog,” the American said.
The opening heats of the women’s 200m were canceled because of the low number of entrants and those entered were to go straight into the quarter-finals in the evening session later yesterday.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with