MELBOURNE, Australia, Feb 10 (AFP) - World 400-metreshurdles champion Jana Pittman strained a thigh muscle attraining Tuesday and is out of Australia’s trackchampionships in Sydney in a fortnight, her coach PhilKing said.
King said pulled up during a session here and will beout of action for at least three weeks.
King said the injury was a minor hiccup'' inPittman's preparations for the Athens Olympic Games inAugust. Despite Pittman's setback, she is certain to be in thepreliminary Australian Olympic track and field teamnamed after the nationals on March 1. Pittman, 21, has been battling injuries resulting froma misaligned pelvis which have forced her out ofsuccessive track events in Sydney and Brisbane. King said Pittman had been diagnosed with a grade onetear of a thigh muscle. She was taken for scans, which revealed the problem. It’s an injury which happened a week ago but it’sbeen aggravated and there is bleeding there,’’ King saidTuesday.
She's definitely out of the nationals. But it's aminor strain and in three weeks' time, she'll be able tohave all training options available to her.'' In terms of the big picture it’s a minor hiccup,’‘he said.
``But it’s a major frustration for Jana in an Olympicyear and it’s also frustrating because she wanted to runduring the domestic season so she could help thesport.’’
Pittman has fulfilled the selection criteria for theGames with her victory in the world championships lastAugust.
But Pittman has not competed in the 400m hurdles sinceher world title win, with only a handful of races on theflat and a mixed 330m hurdles race so far this year asshe battled injury problems.
Are there anyone left for the trials now?