TOKYO (Reuters) – Olympic sprint champion Julien Alfred said she was still mulling running in the women’s 200 metres at the world championships despite her agent saying that her season was over because of a hamstring strain. The Saint Lucian, who won 100m gold and a silver in the 200m in Paris last year, said […]
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Athletics-Alfred says still mulling Tokyo 200m bid despite injury
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TOKYO (Reuters) – Olympic sprint champion Julien Alfred said she was still mulling running in the women’s 200 metres at the world championships despite her agent saying that her season was over because of a hamstring strain.
The Saint Lucian, who won 100m gold and a silver in the 200m in Paris last year, said on Sunday after finishing third in the shorter sprint final in Tokyo that she had run with an injury.
Her agent Henry Rolle told Television Jamaica that Alfred had suffered a grade one hamstring strain and was withdrawing from the 200m, but the 24-year-old said later on Monday that no decision had been made.
“I do feel a bit more pain now as I decided to run the race last night,” she told reporters after receiving her 100m bronze medal at Tokyo’s National Stadium.
“But overall, I’m deciding to wait for my team to see how we go forward with the decision. I’m still deciding, I have one more day to see how it feels and then go from there.”
Alfred ran the fastest 200m time of the year with a scorching 21.71 in London in July. The heats for the 200m take place on Wednesday with the final on Friday.
(Reporting by Irene Wang and Nick Mulvenney, editing by Peter Rutherford and Ken Ferris)