Jamaica

Official: sprinter Asafa Powell out of Commonwealth Games

Published Mar. 23, 2018 8:08 p.m. ET

GOLD COAST, Australia (AP) Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell won't compete in the 100 meters at the Commonwealth Games due to an undisclosed injury, team officials said Friday.

Jamaica team head Dalton Myers told Australian Associated Press that Powell, the 2006 Commonwealth Games 100-meter champion and former world record holder, had pulled up injured at a meet and opted to rest.

The 35-year-old Powell has been hampered by injury, not running in last June's Jamaican championship final due to tendinitis.

''We've had no official statement from him (to confirm the specific injury) but I know he was aiming to come to the games, this was something that he was really looking forward to and he had made public statements about that,'' Myers said.

''I know he stopped midway through an event and since then the aim has been to focus on the rest of the season and get that rehabilitation. If he turns up it will only be as part of the delegation, not to race.''

Powell, a member of the Jamaican gold-medal winning 4x100 relay team at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, held the 100-meter world record between June 2005 and May 2008, with times of 9.77 and 9.74 seconds.

Powell's absence leaves training partner Yohan Blake, who has already arrived on the Gold Coast, and possible starter Andre De Grasse of Canada, as the men favored to win gold.

The Commonwealth Games are from April 4 to 15, with the 100-meter race scheduled for April 9.

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