Yohan Blake experienced a setback on his return to full fitness on Friday, pulling up during the 100m at the Glasgow Grand Prix, stumbling off the track and leaving in a wheelchair.
Although missing much of last season with hamstring troubles, the double Olympic silver medalist told the BBC that only cramps prevented him finishing the race, not something more serious.
However, Blake’s fresh discomfort did show the Scottish public just why he has already declared he will not be returning to Glasgow later this month for the Commonwealth Games.
Photo: AFP
Fellow Jamaican Nickel Ashmeade, who is planning to come back for the games, won the sprint in 9.97 seconds ahead of the US’ Mike Rodgers.
“I came here to execute and then the time speaks for itself, that’s all I can do,” said Ashmeade, whose compatriot, Nesta Carter, came was third.
The 24-year-old Ashmeade will contest the 200m event at the Monaco Diamond League meet next week before returning to Scotland for the multisport gathering of 71 former British Empire countries. The pitch has been ripped out at Scotland’s national soccer stadium, Hampden Park, to facilitate track and field. The Diamond League meet was shifted from London to help Glasgow prepare for the Games and because the British capital’s Olympic Stadium is being overhauled.
Unlike the packed crowds that welcomed Usain Bolt to London last July, the Olympic great chose not to participate —announcing the decision in a tweet on Friday — and there were thousands of empty seats in Glasgow.
Abdominal pains forced Mo Farah to withdraw and Hagos Gebrhiwet of Ethiopia won the 5,000m in the Olympic champion’s absence.
The most notable home success came with Will Sharman clocking 13.21 seconds in the 110m hurdles as Jamaica’s Hansle Parchment, who set the year’s fastest time on Monday, was forced back into fifth.
US triumphs came when Tianna Bartoletta leapt 6.98n in the long jump, Francena McCorory clocked 49.93 seconds in the 400m, Reese Hoffa’s shot put reached 21.67m and Gia Lewis-Smallwood threw 67.59m in the discus.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later