Injured Yohan Blake withdraws from Jamaican meet

Kingston, Jamaica: Reigning world 100-metre champion Yohan Blake has withdrawn from this week’s Jamaican national athletics championships with a right thigh injury, the runner’s manager said on Tuesday.

Blake will still be eligible to run in the World Championships at Moscow in August because he won the 2011 world 100 title at Daegu, South Korea.

Just over nine weeks ago, Blake walked off the track after grabbing his right thigh later tweeting: “am good my twitter family just a cramp”, only to have coach Glen Mills say the injury was much worse.

Blake returned to the track on June 8 and won a 200m race at a low-key all-comers meet in 20.72 seconds at the Jamaican national stadium in Kingston.

He was training for the Jamaican nationals but Cubie Seegobin, Blake’s manager, said in a statement on Tuesday that Blake would not be running this week because Mills was not satisfied with his fitness due to the thigh injury.

“Yohan’s coach is not satisfied with the progress of his injury and hence his level of fitness will not allow him to compete at this time,” Seegobin said.

“We will continue to assess the situation and re-evaluate as we approach the world championships.”

Blake was the London Olympics double sprint silver medallist last year behind training partner Usain Bolt.