A handful of injuries and new cases of doping, as well as temporary permits, impact the heart of athletics less than a week before the start of a new World Championship, to be held between next Saturday, August 19 and Sunday, August 27 in Budapest, mainly because those involved are current champions.
The owner of the Olympic and world gold medal and the record in the 400 meters hurdles, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, announced that she will not compete in the Hungarian capital following an injury to her left knee. “I need to address a minor problem in order to be completely healthy at the Paris Olympic Games next year,” she explained on her Instagram last Friday. The replacement will be Lynna Irby-Jackson, who was already part of the American team in the 4x400.
McLaughlin-Levrone won’t be the only athlete unable to retain her world medal. A left hamstring injury will sideline Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo, third in the 10,000 meters in Tokyo 2021 and Eugene 2022. He did not arrive in time to leave behind the coup suffered last August 1. This year it had been enshrined at the World Cross Country Championships in Australia.
When the temptation to label him as the “new Usain Bolt” gained followers, Issimade Asinga caused another impact, although not because it dropped 10 seconds and demolished the U20 world record in the 100 meters: the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) temporarily suspended the 18-year-old representative of Suriname due to the consumption of endurobol (a substance used to reduce fat and increase endurance), who will not be able to measure himself with the best sprinters in the World Cup and may be exempt from his record. His case is one of the most recent along with that of Kenyans Agness Jeruto Barsosio and Rodgers Kwemoi.
Another shock had as its protagonist the pole vaulter Thiago Braz, Olympic champion on his land in Rio 2016 and bronze in Tokyo. The Brazilian tested positive for ostarine (its effects are similar to those of anabolic steroids) and the respective provisional sanction from the same agency will cost him Budapest 2023 and perhaps Paris 2024. His neighbor Federico Bruno, one of the figures in Argentine athletics with his South American record in the 5,000 meters, is another notable absence from that continent.
The picture is different for the Nigerian sprinter Tobi Amusan, who received provisional permission from World Athletics and was registered to defend the world title and improve her record of 12.12 in the 100 meters hurdles. On July 18, she had been temporarily suspended by the AIU for 12 months after not being placed in three checkpoints over the past year. Despite the authorization to compete, the 26-year-old sprinter, who received a vigorous defense from compatriot athletes and defined herself as “clean”, is still waiting for a final sentence to convict or acquit her.
Regardless of significant losses, figures such as Faith Kipyegon, Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce, Yulimar Rojas and Ryan Crouser will pursue glory at the National Athletics Center in Budapest 2023. In addition, more than 2,000 athletes from 49 events will go for the minimum marks to earn their ticket for Paris 2024.
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