Caines pulls out of World trials
Caines is targeting a return to the British number one spot in 2006
Daniel Caines has been ruled out of this weekend’s AAA Championships and trials for next month’s World Indoor Championships because of injury.
The 400m runner has returned to his American base for treatment on a knee injury but will be back to run in the Birmingham Grand Prix on 18 February.
His mother and agent Blondelle Thompson told BBC Sport: "It’s a precaution. If he ran he wouldn’t be at his best.
“He is still planning to try and qualify for the World Indoors.”
Caines took 400m gold at the World Indoor Championships in 2001 and has made a promising start to the indoor season.
The 26-year-old notched up decent wins in Glasgow and Stockholm and was set to contest a third 400m AAA title.
But a “slight pain” means Caines, who has been plagued by knee injuries in the past, must sit out the trials in Sheffield.
Danny does not want to take any chances with the World Indoors looming
Daniel Caines’ agent Blondelle Thompson
That means it will be up to the discretion of the British selectors to choose whether to add him to their squad for the World Indoors in Moscow.
The trials, which are held over two days at the English Institute of Sport, are a chance for those athletes not going to the Commonwealth Games to impress.
Craig Pickering (60m) and Nathan Morgan (long jump), who have both opted out of the Games, will have strong title hopes.
It will also be a busy weekend for Kelly Sotherton, who will tune up for the Commonwealth heptathlon by contesting the high jump, shot and long jump.
The Olympic heptathlon bronze medallist will face promising heptathlete Jessica Ennis in the long jump, who will be competing on home soil.
“It’s nice to compete on my home track where I train and I’m not really feeling nervous,” Ennis told BBC Sport.
“I need to jump over 6m and it’ll be good to see where Kelly is in terms of fitness in comparison to me.”
There will also be plenty of focus on Karen Harewood, who has already attainted the qualifying standard for Moscow.
The 30-year-old, who only gave up her full-time job at the start of the year, ran two minutes 00.53 seconds, to jump to fifth in the 2006 800m indoor rankings.