World champion Justin Gatlin will miss Saturday’s highly anticipated 100 metres showdown with silver medallist Christian Coleman because of a hamstring injury, Gatlin’s manager said on Wednesday.
The 36-year-old American experienced tightness in his right hamstring during a 4×100 metres relay in Japan last weekend and while the leg was better, “the consensus was that Justin will not run at Pre,” Renaldo Nehemiah said in an email to Prefontaine Classic Diamond League meeting organisers.
He had been scheduled to meet world indoor 60 metres record holder Coleman, China’s world indoor silver medallist Su Bingtian, 2017 British Diamond League 100 metres winner CJ Ujah and American Ronnie Baker, the year’s fastest man at 9.97 seconds.
“He needs to be 100 percent coming into a race of that quality,” Nehemiah said.
Gatlin won his 100 metres race in Osaka last weekend in 10.06 seconds after finishing seventh in the rain at the Shanghai Diamond League meeting.
His next race, if the leg continues to improve, will be a 100m at Ostrava, Czech Republic on June 13, Nehemiah told Reuters.
